Proteges
by KF fan
Summary: Kid Flash and Jinx are still together at the Tower. KF and Robin are best friends. Even as KF and Jinx become more accomplished they can still use mentors and there are still those who would like them to be their proteges. Ch19 Flash Mitzvah & popping
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This story follows after my stories Reach the Horizon and Here's a Good One. You don't have to have read those first but it might help. In the latter, Kid Flash found out that his biological father was one of Flash's greatest enemies the speedster from the future, Professor Zoom. With Flash's wife, his Aunt Iris dead, at Zoom's hands and Wally's completely neglecting parents indifferent, Wally was adopted by Flash and is now Wally Allen.

This story takes place several months after that.

Jinx pedaled along in the golden glow of a late spring Jump City sunset. She glanced beside her and laughed. Her boyfriend of nearly a year was struggling not to keep up with her but to keep his pants up jogging alongside her.

"You should've worn your red and yellow," she smirked then stopped on a street corner to go easy on him. He jogged up to where she was and pulled up his drooping pants. As he spoke, she tucked some stray orange locks under his hat.

"Yeah, I-I just thought I might see my old pals while showing you their houses."

"You know you can't tell them about yourself, Mr. Super Hero."

"I know, I just . . . " he shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I hoped to see them and that even in my big clothes they'd guess and that they'd realize why I drifted away from them."

"And that's why you didn't tell me to wear a hat or something too."

"Well, you're wearing a skirt and all that metal chain and your top's not indigo or black. You could be just another punk girl."

"Or maybe Jinx, too." she nodded and smiled like a parent at the doings of a mischievous child. "What brought this on?"

Wally sighed as a car went by with base pounding so hard the bike felt like it vibrated along with it under Jinx's hands.

"Fucking losers!" a kid in a yankees hat shouted out the window at Jinx and Wally as it passsed. Jinx nearly shouted back. Wally just rolled his eyes and started speaking again to divert her. Her temper was better now, but still . .

"I saw my old pal Aaron's name in the paper. It was about Aaron pitching a really good game in Babe Ruth League."

"Babe Ruth League?"

"What you play in after little league. I was better than Aaron every year that we played. I was really really good, Jinx."

She chuckled. "You were already cheating with no tailbone, or appendix and your 29th century butt and all."

Wally sighed. "Yeah, but I didn't know. I was one of the guys. I remember us being teammates. We were teammates every year. I loved it. So I saw the thing in the paper and started feeling all, I don't know . . nostalgic for being Wally."

"Still?"

"I-I still feel guilty about how I let down my pals when I became KF. I ditched on them and didn't follow through on things so many times . . . and they'd been great pals to me. I still wish I could explain."

"I see. So maybe I'm not so crazy for still feeling allegiance to See-More and Gizmo and Wykkyd?"

He looked her right in her pink eyes and shook his head with a smile. "Not for that reason." he said and laughed but she got the last laugh, pulling his blood red knit hat down over his face before she started pedaling again. Wally caught up and jogged alongside her, keeping his pants up more of a challenge for the fastest teen alive than keeping up with her bicycle.

The street bent a little to one side and the golden light now fell so gently on her pale gray skin, making her seem even more beautiful, smiling perched on that bicycle seat in the warm air. He sighed. He wanted to make love to her right now in that patch of cornflower off to the side of the street where she was stopped.

But when didn't he?

Wally Allen, better known to the world as Kid Flash, had been dating Virginia Murphy, better known to the world as Jinx, for almost a year now. He still could not get enough of her. Not just making love to her, not just the supreme joy of being with her. He loved talking to her. He loved joking with her. He loved their occasional game, be it chess or the various gymnastic challenges she would put to him because she was phenomenally gifted and could beat him at that. He loved talking about books and movieswith her. He loved just touching her, just holding her hand or guiding her by the elbow. He loved just being in the same room as her. There was an electricity produced when the two of them were together. It was like they lived at the same frequency. Male, female, orange haired, pink haired, speedster, sorceress, good, once a villain, different but compliments, on the same wavelength.

He thought they were made for each other. They had to be. He couldn't feel more than this. What more was there? He couldn't love her or want her more than this. It was all he could do to control himself. And still she occasionally made remarksrevolving around the word "insatiable". He occasionally wondered if he was a freak, the way he couldn't get enough of her. He knew that in some ways his desire was, at least how it was expressed.

Super speed tongue. Vibrating . . it. Allright. I'm a freak. So what? I please her. And what was normal anyway? How would other guys behave?

He didn't know. He'd never had "the talk" with his father. He'd really never had any substantive talk with his father, the man who instinctively knew Wally wasn't his. He didn't know what other boys his age did. He wasn't anything like them. He was almost 16 but a member of the Teen Titans. He'd had his own life on the line dozens of times and made the difference in saving other lives many more times than that. He was mature beyond his years. He wasn't a braggart about it but deep down he knew it was true. And the real reason he occasionally worried about being a freak was because he wanted so much to please her.

He felt more confident, more secure in every way with the sorceress's love. But it was a quiet confidence, a deep certainty about himself that her love gave him. He didn't brag more during the team's fights. If anything, he bragged less. He'd almost stopped showing off in the middle of missions. He had his super speed euphoria, the rush ofendorphins that using his super speed created in his body, more under control than before.

Yet, even amid his quiet new certainty he wanted desperately to please her. He had heard boys talking about sex growing up and it's always been sort of one sided talk. I did this. I had her do this to me. I. Me. I. Hahaha!

But it wasn't like that. It wasn't like that at all. He wondered if those boys had known anything at all.

He and Jinx pleased each other and pleasing her gave him a rush. A smile on her beautiful face would put a grin on his. So he worried just a little bit at any furrow of her brow. At first, they would make love as energetically as two super powered teens could and would fall into blissful sleep amidst scattered covers in his quarters whenever sleep finally overtook them. Wally always wanted to hold her to him, to spoon with her. It wasn't a conscious plan. Even he didn't know that he would. But he loved holding her, feeling her skin against his and the steady rhythm of her breathing.

At first, she'd almost resisted. Not consciously, just like he hadn't planned to always hold her to him. But in her sleep she would push away with one arm and wake him. Wally would open his eyes to his beloved pushing against his washboard abs to be apart from him. He wondered if he was stifling her. Does she find this all too suffocating? But if she woke, she would invariably move closer to him with a soft sigh and encourage his embrace. He eventually decided that maybe she'd been trying to set herself apart all her life and he'd wanted connection. Soon enough though, she got accustomed to Wally and his need for touch. She liked it quite a bit actually.

But, what didn't she like about the boy? As he caught up to her at the side of the road, she gave a firm pat to his butt. She laughed when he cast a glance her way. Then she swatted his buns again.

"Hey!" he chuckled and she laughed more. She made a point of openly showing appreciation for his body and initiating public displays of affection just as often as him. He was just the right blend of modest and aggressive for her. It's what she was, too.

She was not about to be a passive girl no matter how energetic the teen speedster's attentions were. She was on top just as much as him and loved flexing her muscle, testing just how strong he was.

At the same time, there was a part of her that Wally's attentions flattered and made stronger. Every girl steels herself against the relentless appraisal of the world by assuring herself of her own beauty. Virginia Murphy had been such a pariah, so scorned, called a witch and a freak and a loser so often that she chose to become indifferent to conventional notions of beauty. And she started to doubt the voice that assured her she was beautiful. She would've laughed and then hexed anyone who told her that she wanted the reassurance of a boy telling her she's beautiful. But the teen speedster said it, said it often. And he meant it. And he wasn't a conventional vanilla, blah, nothing boy. He didn't really care if anyone else agreed with him. He didn't say it because his pals thought it. He would get a certain look watching her. She knew the look, his chest heaving with a deep breath then his eyes widening just a bit. Oh my god. She's . . .

And she got that response from him, the gorgeous boy with the fantastic speedster body, bright and a hero but not a . . a punisher. That was important. After being around him for months, that's what she thought separated Kid Flash from some other heroes. For them, the whole deal was somebody had to be punished. It was a way to express some anger that a hero had inside, dying to come out whether or not a bad guy showed up on cue. Something had happened and somebody would get to be the hammer. Hammer. Hammer. Hammer. It was almost sadistic in a respectable way. But Wally wasn't like that. As she got to know him as well as the boy could be known, she realized that the bad guys didn't matter that much to him. He was so much more focused on the victims. Oh, he went after the bad guys. But it was as a means to an end, protecting those victims rather than just the chance to be the hammer. All heroes felt that in some way, but the proportions were different. It explained why he didn't try to arrest her that first night at the museum.

He was her first experience of anything close to love. After nearly a year, she was certain that he was the one. But she was 16 and a half and he wasn't quite 16. She smirked at the idea. How white trash would that look? Marrying before I even turned 17. She always smirked at the notion, the humor of the situation both in how perfectly white trash it would be, and she having first lived in a double wide trailer, and yet how irrelevant it was. She was a sometimes hero now, going on missions with the team and putting her gymnastics toned butt on the line the same as the others, though with a little more style, of course. She'd seen a lot more of life than any 16 year old girl was supposed to have seen. And being with the boy wasn't going to be just some mistake. He read fucking Rilke to her in bed. She sighed at just the thought. Rilke. The sex after that would've set records if stats were kept.

She patted the side of his butt and chirped, "Come on slowpoke. Try and keep up with me." Off she pedaled as fast as she could. The toned and trained sorceress set a blazing pace and Wally had to hold his pants up with one hand and run along at a pace that would've seemed at least improbable if anyone had been paying attention to them. He grabbed the back of the bicycle seat and slowed her down.

"Hey look," she laughed. "A metaphor for our relationship. You holding me back."

Wally almost lost his grip for his laughing and then she couldn't hold back her own laughter and burst into guffaws and stopped pedaling. He stepped around front of her and kissed her.

Eventually they traveled on toward the bay from the section of the city where he'd lived. They were too busy singing and laughing to notice that the quality of the neighborhoods steadily decreased.

" . . . nothing seems to fit . . . . those . . . raindrops keep fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'," Wally sang as they passed over a short rise in the cracked sidewalk with weeds sprouting through the gaps everywhere and came upon the car with the excessive bass and another like it with a total of six late teen tough guys leaning on them. As they approached, three of the six moved to stand in their way.

Jinx stopped pedaling and looked at Wally with a little smile.

"Aw, jeez guys," he sighed softly looking at them. The group of them, two black, two white and two hispanic moved closer to him and Jinx. They eyed the exotically pale skinned and pink haired girl in a skirt, tank top and chain mail belt ravenously. They cast only a few dismissive glances at the skinny white boy beside her in oversized clothes.

"That's a pretty bike you got there. We might like to ride you, uh, it," said the black kid who was their apparent leader, to Jinx, and the others all laughed. Then they all stepped forward.

"Hold on a minute," said Wally with one hand out.

"Hold on? Hold on for what, skinny ass white boy?"

"We have to decide what to do with you," he said matter of factly and turned to Jinx. The sixlooked at each other quizzically. What'd he say?

"We should just wipe 'em out," said Jinx.

"But that doesn't teach 'em anything. The best would be for them to realize they shouldn't mess with us."

Jinx glanced at the would be tough guys. "They're too stupid for that."

"Whatchu saying, you pink haired punk bitch?"

Wally spun his forearm in a circle creating a tiny cyclone that blew off all their hats.

"Even if it's partly out of fear, it's got some value," he argued. "They might worry about about the next punk girl or, what'd they call me?"

"Skinny ass white boy."

"Right. They might worry about the next skinny ass white boy and leave 'im alone. It's good to flex those consciences even just a little bit."

Jinx sighed. "Oh, allright. You're way too nice. But this becomes a hexarama if these morons take it to the next level."

"Of course. That goes without saying. The argument obviously stops at the next level up."

They turned back to the tough guys who had picked up their hats and warily moved back toward Wally and Jinx.

"That thing you did wichyouw hand. You'we him aintcha?"

"I'm just a, uh, skinny ass white boy," said Wally innocently.

"And I'm just a pink haired punk young woman . . . not the word you used."

The leader's eyes went back and forth between Wally and Jinx. "You're them. You did that wind thing and she's da pink girl. You're them."

The others weren't all as quick on the uptake. "Whatchu talkin' about Carl? It was just a breeze."

"That weren't no breeze. Skinny boy did that an' only one skinny white boy ken do shit like that, one wit a pink haired witch girlfriend."

He took one step back. A couple of them looked at him skeptically.

"CarlCarlCarl!"a hispanic tough gestured wildly. "Why would some super hero ass skinny boy be joggin' along Jump Boulevard . . . out here! Hmmmm?"

"That's just the sort of question that Robin would ask," noted Wally. "He thinks I'm kind of a flake, some of the stuff that I like to do, and that she's even more of one . . . . or . . . maybe I'm just a, uh, skinny ass white boy bluffing you."

The six of them stood staring at him and Jinx anxious for some kind of tell, some kind of sign that would give it away that they really were just a five foot ten skinny white boy and his punk girlfriend traveling in the wrong neighborhood.

"You guys don't want to mess with us. Where's the honor in messing with us? What would you tell the other guys you know? Hey we had a throw down with this hundred forty seven pound kid and his beautiful girl and messed 'em up bad. We took their bike.I mean, look at it. It's not even a ten speed. Would that really impress anyone? So, just . . . step aside and let us go. We're not hurting you."

The leader tapped the side of his fist against his lips a couple times pondering, glancing back and forth. He couldn't stop picturing how easily the skinny kid had whipped up that wind from spinning his arm. That had been him, hadn't it? Then he pulled one of the guys aside with a big laugh. Just foolin' he and the others said. Just kiddin' man, they laughed. Can't you take a joke. They parted and Jinx rode between them as Wally jogged along, hiking up his pants every few steps.

They were almost out of sight down the street when the leader shouted to them. "Hey! I gotta know! Are you them?"

Wally turned around to face him. "Nah. I'm just a skinny ass white boy."

Jinx caught the slight sound beside her, a slight sort of a zip sound going away then another coming back. She was used to it.

At the news that it was just a bluff, the six tough guys all started running toward Wally and Jinx. And they fell on their faces. Their shoelaces were tied together in triple knots.

"Where was I?" laughed Wally turning around to amble along besides his chuckling girlfriend. "Oh yeah."

He broke into song again. ". . but there's one thi-ing I know . . . the blues they sent to greet me won't de-feat me . . . " he continued singing till he was done.

Jinx gave him a kiss for his trouble and then he gave Jinx's bike a push.

"Hey, it's another metaphor!" he laughed and Jinx laughed too as they continued on back to the Tower

In the early morning hours, Jinx trembled in his arms.

Kid Flash woke. She was bathed in sweat. What the . . ?

He opened his eyes. They were in his quarters at Titans Tower, as he remembered. The air was cool, as usual. He liked to hold her and for them to give each other necessary warmth. But her light gray skin was slick with perspiration.

Another nightmare. Damn.

He briefly closed his eyes, in pain, her pain. But it was his pain, too, now. Anything that hurt her wounded him. She squirmed in his embrace and mumbled something with a pained, scratchy tone to her voice. He couldn't make out any of it except, halfway through, the word "papa". She jerked to one side and her whole body tensed for a moment. Pink hex energy started shooting out her fingertips and from under her eyelids. He instinctively grabbed her hands, to keep her from hurting herself, intertwining their fingers and pulling her to sit upright held tight against him as he sat up.

"Jinx! Jinx!" he shook her gently.

At last, she snapped out of her dream and woke with gasping breaths, disoriented for a moment, feeling frantic but immediately relaxing in the embrace of her speedster boyfriend, the feel of his familiar muscles. She slowly caught her breath pressing her cheek to his shoulder.

"It's okay, Jinx. It's okay. Everything's okay." he whispered and squeezed her tight. She felt like crying. These damn nightmares were so draining and didn't even seem to leave her with any trace of dark reverie to figure out. She squeezed him tight and over his shoulder, saw his left hand, intertwined with her right, his knuckles blackened and with skin torn down to his fingertips. But just a moment later, his hand was healing and returning to pale pink flawlessness. She turned to whisper in his ear, torn between a thanks and an apology and saw the almost supernatural closing of a deep gash at his cheekbone.

"I'm okay now," she whispered and with the release of her hands she immediately rubbed his back. His muscles felt so good under his skin. It felt so good to hold him, to squeeze that speedster body. Both exhaled and leaned back to look each other in the eye.

"You okay?" she asked.

He nodded almost sarcastically. Of course!

She looked him in the eyes for several moments. "This is what you get for being Mr. Tactile with a girl like me."

He smiled. "I'll take my chances . . . . when-when you were in the throes of your dream, I heard you say 'papa'"

"Papa?"

"That's the only thing I caught. Do you remember any part of that nightmare?"

She shook her head with exasperation. "It-it doesn't even feel quite like a nightmare. It's almost like it's something else. I don't know."

He pulled her close again and rubbed her back. "We'll deal with it. We'll deal with it."

She looked at him with mild surprise. His tone was so certain and so calm. When did his voice get quite that deep? 147 pound Wally projected so much strength for her to rely on.

"You don't even feel a little mad at me burning and cutting you?"

He shrugged then smiled, half forcing his trademark grin. She could tell. Of course she could tell.

"Tell me the truth. How bad did it hurt?"

The pain had been really bad.

"Not so bad," he assured her. "And only for a few seconds. Then I heal and it's done and the only problem remaining is that . . . something hurts you."

He kissed her, gently squeezing her lower lip between his as softly as possible, a kiss of affection only, lust put off for another time, though maybe not long. He couldn't resist running his hand over the delicious firmness of her hip. She reciprocated and he jumped up from the bed.

"Since when does that surprise you?" she chuckled.

"I'm not surprised," he grinned and pulled her up to her feet. "I just want to propose a nice cleansing shower."

She eyed him with a skeptical smile. "Uh huh. I know how that usually goes. This time you soap first."

"Same time?" he suggested.

She grinned.

They went to his shower.

When they left his bathroom, he reached into her shoulder length mane of pink and tied her hair in a complex knot at super speed, making it resemble a pink double helix. She caught a glimpse of its reflection in the bathroom door and he burst out laughing at her expression. In return he got his butt towel whipped. It was easy for her because he had stopped in front of the bed.

"Yeow! Aw, jeez, Jinx."

"What? You had it coming. How'd you tie my hair like-"

"No. The bed."

Jinx moved to his side to look at it.

"Oh."

With the covers thrown off, it looked like a mob hit had been carried out on whoever had been sleeping in it. Five black edged holes were seared all the way through the special memory foam mattress on one side, one hole for each hex shooting fingertip. And there was a single larger hole on the other side of the mattress that went all the way to the floor as well as another burn mark that lined up with a still smoldering spot on the wall.

"Robin was kind of pissed when I got him to give us a new mattress two weeks ago," said Kid Flash. "He said it makes us look like irresponsible kids if we have to keep getting stuff replaced."

"Tell him we wore it out making love on it," she smirked.

"In just two weeks? . . . . Besides, " he added sheepishly. "That's what I told him happened to the first one."

She laughed and slapped his shoulder. "You told me that you just got one requisitioned with no questions asked."

"Actually . . . he asked. I had to say something and I didn't want the others to think you're dangerous so I said it was us making love and that it was my fault, that I was out of control and vibrating and wore out the ability of the memory foam to snap back."

She giggled. "He bought that?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah. Hook, line and sinker. He gets a kick out of any time I don't control my powers. When I accidentally spoke super speed reporting back to everyone after recon that time, with it sounding like a tape being rewound at high speed, or when I eat at super speed because I think no one's watching, or the trouble I have finding pants that fit, all that stuff. He loves it."

"He's jealous of you."

Wally shrugged. "He likes to see that there's some downside, too. Anyway, what do you want to say?"

"Let's just keep it for a while. It's still looks pretty sleepable," she said rubbing circles on his shoulder.

He turned and kissed her and then looked at her with a quizzical expression from an inch away.

"Who said anything about sleeping?"


	2. Sorceresses

Wally slipped out of bed and, as usual, paused a moment to look at Jinx lying there. He let out a sigh at how amazing she looked and made his way to the shower. He bent and picked up his communicator on the way and pressed a few buttons. He'd finally started using the Titans bluetooth connection and taking schedule info off his Titans laptop on his desk.

Any appointments today?

Ugh. There it was at the top of the scroll. Another checkup with the doctors from S.T.A.R. Labs. He sighed and tossed the communicator onto the pile of his civilian clothes on a nearby chair and went off to shower. S.T.A.R. Labs again. He considered it as he washed up. At least the checkups had changed and they'd gotten less frequent. He wasn't sure why. But, just after his 15th birthday and becoming a Titan, it seemed they were constantly emailing him requests to stop by their offices. Just want to check one thing. Would just like to get one more blood sample, if possible. Would like to get a tiny sample of your muscle tissue, hamstring or gluteal would be fine. Ow, that'd hurt even if only for a second. They'd pushed to see him more, always holding over his head that they'd analyzed the blood sample that was from his father on super short notice. So, Kid Flash saw the doctors from S.T.A.R. Labs three times in the first six months after becoming a Titan, then a couple times more.

Now, he wasn't even getting the email requests any more, which was fine by him. Stripping in front of them or answering those weird questions was not something to which he looked forward.

At least the doctors were coming to Titans Tower today, to the infirmary on the ninth floor. He pulled on his Kid Flash uniform and went to the kitchen. First he got a glance of orange juice, some strawberries and a muffin and left them on the nightstand beside his bed for Jinx. He zipped back to the kitchen where all the other Titans were. It was the usual pleasant breakfast of hi's and hugs and some bickering between Beast Boy and Cyborg. He got the usual slightly aghast look from Raven when he gave her a hug about the shoulders too fast for her to avoid. He got the usual friendly smile from Gar. And he got the usual slightly aghast look from Raven as she watched him eating. He got the usual disappointed look from Cyborg because he readily ate something that Starfire had cooked. Don't encourage her! He got the usual pat of his orange haired head from Starfire. He got the usual best friend squinty smile looks from Robin who suggested some additional training workouts, which was also typical, but Kid Flash declined for reason of having the physical with the S.T.A.R. Labs doctors in a few minutes. Robin smirked.

"They haven't been that bad since those first couple times. Honest!"

Robin smirked

A tone sounded alerting those in the building that someone was using their launch to cross the bay to the island. Two louder tones sounded a bit later to signify that someone had stepped onto the island.

"I'll get it," said Kid Flash and he sped down the stairs to the entrance. He waited patiently while two youngish looking doctors, one blond, one black haired, men in mid to late 20's, ones he hadn't seen before, approached the entrance. They saw him and waived but he didn't do anything till they'd gone through the retinal and hand print scanners and gotten inside.

They introduced themselves as doctors Trosky and Swenson. They stared a bit at him, but Kid Flash expected that from anyone he was meeting for the first time. It was no big deal. They went up to the 9th floor in the elevator exchanging small talk about the Tower and the island.

Inside the infirmary, they opened their black leather bags and removed some papers and clipboards and a few things. Kid Flash adopted a sort of military stance in the middle of the room in front of them.

"So, are you guys the ones I'll be dealing with now? I mean, it's kind of odd to me how I was getting examined by Dr. Clyburn and then Dr. Averill for a while and then another guy and now you two. ShouldIinfer anything from that."

The two doctors exhanged a glance.

"We're both pretty new to S.T.A.R. Labs," said Swenson, the blond one. "We came aboard about 18 months ago. You're our project now."

"So . . . no more Dr. Clyburn or Dr. Averill?" asked Kid Flash.

Trosky rolled his eyes and sniffed. "Nope. Sharks gotta find kills."

"Huh?"

Dr. Swenson sighed. "Look. It's like this," he said. "Don't take offense. But they don't want to work with you. You're a problem. You-you look like a dead end."

Dr. Swenson put a stethyscope to Kid Flash's chest and spoke as he took all the normal measurements of a patient while Trosky took notes.

"A year ago, Trosky and I both saw it, you were THE thing at S.T.A.R. Labs. You were it. You were da bomb."

Trosky threw a funny look Swenson's way.

"You were the primo study, a young metahuman, normal in most respects and with a-a super power that seemed like it might be discrete in its effects, one that you could completely control and one that's enticing to anyone. I mean, hey, everyone'd like to be faster. They were talking about new understanding of energy and wiping out Epstein Barr and ther fatigue diseases. They thought there might be something in you for just about everything. Like I said, you were IT. People at S.T.A.R. were scratching and clawing to align themselves for project Mercury. That's what the work on you was called, project Mercury. You wouldn't believe the office infighting."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. It was this total mentor/protege scrum. Some of the stuff I heard would amaze you. It didn't hurt that the subject of project Mercury was good looking. All of a sudden, some of the women who you never saw with an actual subject were willing to leave the centrifuge and the analyzer and wanted to do simple blood work. I remember this one doctor, who shall remain nameless," he paused and he and Trosky exchanged a glance and a grin. "She had a whole wall of cross-sections and pictures of you from the special MRI they did of you at the start. Like I said, it was brutal, everyone trying to align themselves with the right mentor and mentors trying to get the right proteges and those groups trying to get themselves onto studying you."

"Is it really that bad?" asked Kid Flash as they took his blood pressure. "I thought it was just Dr. Clyburn and Dr. Averill helping her."

Trosky chuckled.

"Not even close," Swenson continued. "At one point there were something like 20 researchers studying you. The competition was brutal to be in one of those groups."

"But . . . you're doctors."

"Listen . . . Kid. I guess that's the right thing to call you."

"Actually, they call me KF most of the time."

"Okay. Listen, KF. In this biz, you start out as a potential protege. You try and align yourself with the right mentor, the right older, established doctor to help your career. And you're trying to pick a good guy and somebody you can stand and whose work has merit. At the same time, the established doctors are trying to scoop up the sharpest young doctors to help push their studies and their ideas. Same way as a good mentor can help make the career of a protege, the protege can help make the rep of the mentor. It goes both ways. And like I said, there's jealousy and social games and backstabbing and everything you can imagine going on behind the scenes."

"Wow."

"You don't have any of that in your business, in the hero biz?"

Kid Flash shrugged. "No. I mean, I'm a Flash. There's one other person on the planet who has my skills and he's the one who's been my mentor. I couldn't get super speed and and then train with Green Arrow. Speedy couldn't learn archery from Flash. I . . . ," Kid Flash ended with a shrug. That's just how it is.

"Well, it's different in the research business. So, anyway, you came along and you were accessible and at first they thought they were figuring you out. It was all, 'hey, look at this weird DNA', 'Check out this liver function', 'No tail bone', 'No appendix'. And they did this study that tried to prove that you had the perfect economical shape for speed, with really muscular calves and a small pelvis and a really muscular butt and normal arms et cetera et cetera. Every day it was something different about you that they were talking about. The problem was, they couldn't get past the impossibility."

"The impossibility?"

"Yeah. One of the guys who couldn't get on project Mercury sent around this email showing how what you do is, well . . . impossible and that trying to explain you by normal metabolic processes was hopeless. See," he said and started writing on the sheet on his clipboard in front of Kid Flash, "A guy your size, just short of a hundred fifty pounds, running something like a 7 minute mile burns almost a thousand calories. You ran from here to our headquarters in Star City in, like a minute. Dr. Clyburn said so. She said she spoke to you on the screen. You werehere and then you passed her in the parking lot at Star City as she was leaving. Let's round that out to 2000 miles. Well, 2000 miles times a thousand calories equals 2 million calories burned. If your blood was nothing but insulin you wouldn't have enough to go more than a small fraction of that distance and that's at a 7 minute mile pace, not a 2000 miles a minute pace which would require almost exponentially more energy."

Swenson paused then continued. "It doesn't matter how good your muscle tissue is or how chock full of adenosine tri-phosphate you are, it doesn't work. There was this big intellectual fight in the office. The people on project Mercury didn't want to give up. They floated all kinds of theories about you. One guy said that you're creating energy through fusion reactions in your muscles-"

Kid Flash looked down at the lightning bolt on his yellow clad chest. "Fusion?"

"Another guy had this elaborate thing worked out about how what you really do is alter time around yourself. It was pretty neat. I think he tried to sell it to the people who do Star Trek movies. Another guy said your body created a singularity and that you were drawing energy from some resource in another dimension. All kinds of crazy stuff," he laughed.

Kid Flash forced a chuckle while simultaneously thinking to himself that that last theory sounded just like Flash's.

"Anyway. Nobody wants to have anything to do with a dead end line of research and that's what you look like. Trosky and I are at the bottom of the totem pole, so we got assigned to you. We're sort of working as cold case investigators now, looking into your file and trying to see if there's anything about you that the others missed and that might have some promising applications. I think they already asked you this, but do you have any idea how your super speed works?"

Kid Flash paused a moment. Two thoughts went through his head. My body creates a singularity that allows me to draw energy from a resouce in another dimension. And Swenson's recounting of office infighting.

He shook his head. "Nope."

It took several minutes more to wrap up their visit and then he brought them down the elevator and out to the launch. He waved at them as they started across the bay. Then he ran back up to his quarters on the 13th floor. Jinx wasn't in bed or in the bathroom. He was thinking about Swenson's description of the fighting for mentors and proteges. It might've been lucky that she wasn't there. He might've blurted it out to her right then, while thinking about those doctors. Instead, he went up to 14. He could hear laughter. As he approached the great room he saw that Gar, on the couch, had the keyboard and the others were all standing watching on the giant six foot flat screen. Starfire was pinching Robin's butt and laughing and he looked acutely embarrassed. Jinx, beside them, was finishing her glass of orange juice. She saw Wally approach.

"You've gotta play it again now that he's here," she chuckled and Gar responded with his signature snickering laugh. Cyborg guffawed as well. Even Raven seemed to have some feeling of mirth mixed in with her disdain. What the . . !

"What's up, guys?" Wally asked as he reached the couch.

"New youtube videos, Wally! Hehehe! You're gonna love 'em."

"Or maybe die of embarrassment," muttered Raven.

Wally groaned. Every day it seemed some kid took some publicly available footage of them and doctored it up and mixed it with some song to make a new video.

"We'll watch the new one about me to Changes by David Bowie right after this," said Beast Boy, his voice all barely controlled laughter.

"Doesn't every one about you use that song?" snickered Cyborg.

"Not true!" shouted Gar still navigating his way back to the one he wanted to play. "There's a Green Day one and an Al Green one, too!"

"I detect a theme," said Wally.

Gar's expression went from gritted teeth to a sly smile.

"See what you think of this one?" he said and with one more keystroke, the screen filled with a slightly sketchy image

"Do I have to watch this again?" sighed Robin.

"Yes, you do," giggled Starfire.

In a grayish background, Kid Flash could make out what looked like him and Robin in profile with someone at a podium a bit beyond them. He searched his memory. A month ago at that Jump City Chamber of Commerce thing. Robin and I were the only ones there and they had a podium just like that. Across the screen was the title.

TEEN HERO HOTTIES ON THE CATWALK

"What!" snapped Kid Flash and the others all laughed.

As he watched in embarrassed shock, amid the giggles and pokes in the ribs of Jinx and the others, he saw footage, some of it from tv, some of it from phone cameras, of himself and Robinwith I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred and Vogue by Madonna playing in the background. At first, the footage was just him and Robin standing there listening to some official speak. But it was interspersed with views of both of them from about butt high from maybe 6 feet back of them, the camera operator had even managed to peek under Robin's cape. When the rhythm of the song changed, punctuated by a few quick drum beats, the video showed footage of Kid Flash shifting his weight from one leg to the other. It was edited to repeat rapid fire so that it looked like he was shaking his butt to the beat of the song.

"Hey!" he started to protest this falsification of his movements but saw Jinx fall on the floor laughing and only rolled his eyes.

The next time that same rhythm change came around in the song, they edited the footage to create the same effect with a shift of his weight by Robin so that it looked like he was shaking his butt to the drumbeats of the song. Starfire tumbled to the floor clutching at her belly gasping something about " . . Zorflarg!"

To his and Robin's continued mortification, the video showed footage of them walking up to the podium as lyrics about the catwalk played, making it look as though he and Robin were at a modeling show. Worse, footage of Kid Flash returning to Robin's side and whispering something in his ear was edited to look like the two were doing an air kiss.

"Aw jeez. Wait till Garth and Roy see this," Robin grumbled.

The video finished with more edited footage of Kid Flash and Robin at some other public ceremony, edited again to make it look like they were posing and preening.

When the video ended, Wally looked down at Jinx, on the floor laughing and pointing at him with tears in her eyes. He didn't know what to say. He wanted to say it wasn't fair. But there had been reverent videos about them, too. And the comments about the video all seemed to compliment the video's maker and him and Robin. Among them were, "KF is 2 hot!", "KF melts this grrrrl", "Kid Flash is my ginja ninja of love!" and "KF es muy caliente!" He couldn't gettoo mad witha bunch of messages like that.

He'd calmed down a bit when Jinx got to her feet and shook her butt in a perfect imitation of how the edited footage had made it seem that he had. She guffawed then hugged her smiling, head shaking boyfriend.

"You're my ginja ninja of love!" she whispered in his ear then ran her hand through his hair and burst into more laughter. He could only roll his eyes and sigh.

"Come on everybody," pleaded Beast Boy. "Watch one of the ones about me now!"

The reaction of the others was decidedly lukewarm.

"Beautymistress06 says I'm scrumptious. LickinWiccan says I'm beautiful. And EnvirogirlX calls me a verdant wonder."

"You've . . . memorized comments from . . . anonymous reviewers about a youtube video focusing on you?" Raven more stated than asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Jinx guffawed. "Did you try and contact those girls, too?"

"Um, no, of course not. How lame do you think I am!"

No one answered.

Cyborg stepped forward. "You'd better not have, green bean!"

Beast Boy turned off the computer and everyone went down to the Combat Simulations room for a training session led by Robin. When they were done, Kid Flash sidled up to Jinx.

"Nice hexing there. I didn't know you could control the pattern of them so precisely now."

Jinx blew at the tip of her index finger as if blowing across the barrel of a six shooter after an impressive display of marksmanship. Wally laughed.

"What? Sorceresses can't pratice and improve?" she asked.

Wally's eyes went wide. "Oh, hey, I almost forgot. How 'bout going to that latin dance club with me tonight and then to meet someone?"

"Sooooooo . . . you wanna . .?" Jinx shook her butt in another perfect imitation of how he'd been edited to seem to shake his butt in the video. This time he laughed.

"No, I, uh, don't think that'll be the way I'll dance."

Jinx laughed and threw her arms around his neck and said she'd love to go to that club.

They were at the latin dance club they both loved, both wearing civilian clothes, he a dark suit with a light blue shirt, she in slightly less goth clothes and a hat. But they only danced a little more than a half hour when he practically ran for the exit, tugging her along with him.

"You've gotta meet someone!" he said excitedly.

He tugged her along down the street and across, down another street and to the front of a tall building. She asked where they were going a couple times but each time he just grinned and said "you'll see" with such excitement that it assuaged her each time. But her patience ran out again.

"For the last time, Wally! Who are you taking me to meet? I swear I'll zap your butt off this time," she threatened with two pale fingers raised as if poised to deliver a hex to him. Still, he just shook his head with a smile.

He led her through the revolving door at the entrance of one of the taller steel and glass towers in the heart of Jump City and on to the elevators.

"Wally! I was having a good time at that club. So were you, I thought. I even went to the trouble to wear a hat and you put on normal clothes for a change. Why don't we make use of it?"

The elevator opened and Wally led her in. "This is important. I want you to meet someone."

"Who!" Jinx nearly shouted in the elevator as it zoomed upward.

"You're so close. Why not just be surprised? Aren't my surprises always good?"

She screwed her face into a frown of reluctant agreement. There'd been her mother. And there had been that birthday party for her. There'd been that jazz club that let in underage superheroes. And the thing in bed. And that special position.

She sighed. He grinned.

"Allright, allright. Don't go too far with it. This better be good," she said before he grabbed her hand and tugged her along to a door at the end of the hallway, 4707. He knocked and Jinx could hear a couple steps then light showed at the peephole in the door.

"It's me, Kid Flash," Wally half spoke half whispered with a smile. The door opened. A tall, dark haired woman, perhaps in her early 30's thought Jinx, stunning looking and wearing a plain black dress, stepped forward and hugged him. As Jinx watched in fascination, she wrapped her arms around Wally, then laughed and patted the top of his head.

"Oh my god, Wally! You've grown so much since I last saw you. Look at you! And you're a Titan now. Congratulations! I wanted so much to be at that party for your induction but I couldn't be. I'm sorry." She hugged him again. When they separated he was grinning ear to ear.

"You never need to apologize to me, Zatanna. You were so nice to me when Flash brought me along to Justice League meetings and things."

Jinx's mind raced at the pronunciation of her name. Zatanna? The sorceress with the Justice League who spoke all her incantations in reverse? The heroine sorceress? Wally Allen, you . . ! Jinx straightened up proudly and cleared her throat interrupting their ongoing session of smiling at each other.

"Ahem."

Wally laughed. "Oh, sorry. Zatanna Zatara, full member of the Justice League, may I present to you Jinx, Virginia Murphy, auxiliary member of the Teen Titans. Zatanna . . Jinx. Jinx . . Zatanna."

Jinx stepped forward and offered her hand and they shook. Zatanna directed them inside a luxury apartment filled with high class italian furnishings. The chairs and couch were supple leather. One whole wall was an impressive bookcase filled with leather volumes. There was a breathtaking view of the rest of the Jump City skyline and bay. In the distance, Titans Tower was even faintly visible. Jinx and Wally glanced around both quite impressed.

"I've always wanted to meet you," said Jinx. "I mean, a sorceress and on the same side as fire hair here," she said gesturing to Wally as she removed her hat and revealed her own pink hair. She noticed that Wally barely reacted to what she said, seeming more concerned with Zatanna's clock.

"I've been intrigued by your career, Jinx. Almost no one besides you has ever had the courage to switch from that side to ours. That's got to take a difficult combination of willpower and open mindedness."

Jinx looked down at her platform shoes, surprised at her own bashfulness. "Well, he did help," she said gesturing to Wally, who,again, was looking at Zatanna's clock.

"Oh, I-I just saw what everyone else should have seen, Zatanna. She never belonged with the HIVE or the Brotherhood of Evil. There just didn't seem to be any other choice. But she was easily the most intellgent-"

Wally stopped in mid sentence. His eyes went wide and he glared down at his ring. Jinx thought she could actually see it vibrate a little on his finger. Then he ran out of the living room into a darkened hallway, returning in his skin tight red and yellow uniform.

"Three vibrations means a call from Flash. Sorry but I've gotta go. He doesn't call me unless it's serious," said Kid Flash at a barely normal rate of speaking before kissing Jinx on the lips and pausing at the door. "I'm sorry, Zatanna."

"Don't worry. Jinx can stay if she wishes," she said to a red and yellow blur just before it went right through her door.

Jinx wondered if there would be awkward moments with their mutual acquaintance gone but they went right on talking, feeling quite at ease with each other. They settled into comfortable postions, Zatanna in her favorite black leather chair and Jinx at one end of the couch. Zatanna offered her a glass of wine and Jinx accepted.

"You and he . . .?" Zatanna raised an eybrow.

Jinx nodded. There was never an actual full question of their involvement or a declaration made.

"Good for you both. I always thought that the Flashes were the best suited for relationships of the Justice Leaguers I've met."

"Really? Why?"

Zatanna chuckled. "Look at the competition. Great heroes but trying being around them for any extended period. Kal el? Booooring. Ollie! Dinah must be a masochist. Orin! My god. Orin. Even Hal or John and some of the others."

"Um, I'm not sure who all of those guys are."

"It's just as well. I don't mean to gossip and defame anyone. I mean it more as a compliment to Flash and to Kid Flash. Flash is just so amazingly level headed. I always sort of imagined that after getting his powers he had a few moments of surprise then immediately went to save someone's life without any further thought about it. And Wally!"

"How do you know Wally?" asked Jinx.

"I met him when was just a 12 year old boy visiting the Justice League watchtower satellite. What a sight, this boy, so handsome . . . ," she shook her head

"Yeah," Jinx caught herself just short of a giggle.

". . . so handsome but just a 12 year old boy in his tight Kid Flash suit and looking so adorably self conscious about it. Anything less than excessive confidence was not a common trait among the heroes visiting the watchtower," said Zatanna and Jinx nodded with a smirk. "And I was pleasantly surprised to find the boy was such an avid reader. He was reading an obscure book by Victor Hugo in one of the common areas waiting for Flash when I first saw him."

Jinx nodded. "I know. A pretty boy who's intellectual!"

Zatanna smiled. "What struck me in that first meeting . . . I couldn't put my finger on it then, but noticed it the other times I met Kid Flash, is how social he is."

Jinx threw her head back. "Oh, gods, completely! He talks to cab drivers and traffic cops and doormen and just everyone in Jump City. He could insulate himself from other people more easily than anyone but he does the opposite. I think he knows all their names. That's Wally's idea of how things are supposed to be."

Zatanna smiled. "It's such a different conception of how heroes should relate to the public from Batman, for instance."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Batman! Who knows how that guy relates to anyone. Wally says he didn't treat Robin very well. What kind of a guy . . . ," Jinx's voice trailed off. Her mouth hung open. Something in Zatanna's eyes, the way she looked away to hide them had given it away.

"Oh my god. You . . . and . . . Batman!"

Zatanna gave the slightest nod and sipped her wine. Jinx's mouth hung open.

"He was really excellent company when he wanted to be. He's just . . so different, his presumptions about life are just so different from social Wally, presumptions that almost doom any relationship."

Jinx sat back limply on the couch. This woman had a relationship with Batman. Talk about your final dating frontiers! Holy shit.

"I-I would think Batman would be kind of, I don't know, repelled, by the idea of sorcery, of a sorceress. No?"

"Actually no. Not at all. He was fine with it. I assume Wally is, too?"

"Oh, completely. He's never batted an eyelash at anything I do. It helps that his whole thing is practically supernatural. He admits he doesn't know exactly how his super speed works."

"If only everyone was so open to a woman being a sorceress."

"Or a woman being strong."

Zatanna smiled. "Iris West got your Wally acclimated to strong women."

Jinx chuckled. "I know. But, before meeting him, I went through so much shit, pardon the language, crap-"

"Shit's fine. I'm an adult."

Jinx smiled. "I went through so much shit before I became an adult, kids making fun of me, calling me names, just day after day of trying to make my life miserable."

"Just because your appearance is a little different, but quite pretty, and you have abilities they don't understand?"

"Yeah, um, thank you. Thank you very much."

"And really, what we think of as sorcery may one day be perfectly explicable in the future as the action of the forces of nature and not supernatural at all."

"Exactly!" said Jinx. "Wally and Flash separately said the same thing to me, that maybe I just affect molecular bonds that I increase entropy in a totally straightforward way."

Zatanna smiled. "They always should've been father and son."

Jinx rolled her eyes.

"What?" asked Zatanna.

"No, I agree," said Jinx. "Flash treats him like a real dad. But Wally's real father is a villain."

"What?"

Jinx nodded. "One of Flash's worst enemies, Professor Zoom. He's Wally's biological father. He-"

"The one from the 29th century?"

Jinx nodded. "He . . . look, this is pretty gossipy. I feel a bit odd even talking about this. Wally was so ashamed."

Zatanna sighed. "Wally's the same boy no matter who made him."

"He was distraught that Flash might look at him differently but Flash just took the news in stride. He didn't care either. You should have seen Wally afterward," laughed Jinx. "He was so relieved!"

"Well, how does a super speed villain from the 29th century have a son born in the 20th?"

Though they were alone in the room, Jinx reflexively looked side to side as though someone else might hear. "Professor Zoom made Wally to play a joke on Flash. He thought he was getting Flash's wife pregnant with Wally, but mistakenly did it with her sister in law. When he saw that he'd gotten the wrong Ms. West, he didn't have any interest in Wally and neither did his parents, the Wests, in their bastard boy. Wally met Zoom when he was 15. The guy had, I don't know, pangs of conscience or something and wanted to meet him. Wally got it confirmed with a blood test and Zoom told him that lots of people are genetically engineered in the 29th century including his family. So Wally pretty much is, too. He said the DNA tests showed he's almost all Zoom and none of his mother."

Zatanna shook her head. "What an odd thing to find out about yourself."

"But except for worrying that Flash wouldn't feel the same way about him, Wally took the whole thing in stride. He was deathly afraid that Flash wouldn't think of him the same way. He just wanted Flash and-and me to not think of him differently."

"How about you working on the hero side? Have you been able to take everything in stride?"

"Well, it's a bit weird in a lot of ways. I'm not the leader of the Titans. And it's sort of weird kind of sitting around and waiting for a bad guy to do something and then respond to it. It's kind of passive compared to the villain life. We practice and stuff to try and keep an edge but it's not the same as doing all the plotting and everything."

"It's a life with a different rhythm."

"Exactly! It's not bad. It's just different. I try and take my cues from the others, from Wally and the girls, Raven and Starfire, but it's just a bit odd. Wally helps all he can, sometimes almost . . . "

"Almost what?"

Jinx let out a big sigh. "Sometimes I wish he'd screw up. I know that must sound crazy, but he works so hard to be just the right guy that I-I feel . . . I don't know, I feel like I'm under pressure to be just the right girl."

"Tell him."

"What! Are you serious? Tell a boy he's being too good? Every other woman on earth might kill me if I do that."

"Does he love you?"

Jinx nodded immediately.

"Then he wants what's good for you. It's not good for you to feel pressured in a relationship. Maybe he's feeling pressure to be a perfect boy and he'd like to relax too."

"Neither one of us had any real thing before this. But I-I liked him just a little bit silly and not completely serious like when I first met him. My skinny butt speedster boyfriend shouldn't be trying to be Superman."

"No, but maybe he thinks he's supposed to be. Tell him. You love him, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then don't let him twist himself into knots to try and be something he doesn't need to be."

Jinx nodded and then smiled. Her smile looking at Zatanna was her thank you.

"So, how does a woman 'take up with' Batman, anyway, if you don't mind my asking?" Jinx chuckled.

"We were on duty at the Watchtower and started idly chatting then talking more seriously and before either of us knew it, there we were."

Zatanna chuckled and Jinx joined her.

"So, tell me about yourself," prompted Zatanna. And Jinx did. She wasn't sure why she did but she told Zatanna everything about herself. It felt good to unburden herself. There were things she said to Zatanna that she had never even told Wally.But she felt so comfortable talking to Zatanna and the woman had talked about Batman, after all, there was some give and take.

Zatanna listened intently and was impressed by the maturity that allowed Jinx to recount her misfortunes without wallowing in them as some girls would have. She interrupted to ask questions here and there but just enough to understand everything. She didn't reproach Jinx. Her only comment of any judgemental sort came after Jinx recounted with glee how she had been even more determined to press on with a life of crime after being condemned by people around her.

"That's very dangerous," cautioned Zatanna. "Being a real independent individual means charting the course of your life not to please or to displease others."

Jinx sighed. "That's almost what Wally said on one of our first dates. Doing things just to give a big, deserved fuck you to assholes is like giving those same people a veto power over your life."

Zatanna smiled. "Wally said that?"

"Uh huh."

Zatanna nodded slowly. Jinx could tell he was rising even further in Zatanna's estimation.

They talked on and on, completely forgetting the time and just enjoying likeminded company. They were still talking and laughing at 2 am.

". . so I showed Trump's people the clause in the lease. I said, you're supposed to take care of that, and for what I pay for that unit, you should be taking care of it even if it's not in the lease. But they wouldn't do anything. So, I caught up with Mr. Trump himself at some public ceremony."

"oooo Mr. Apprentice himself."

"Such a negligible man," Zatanna shook her head. "Anyway, I explained the situation to him but he didn't want to do anything. And that's how he got that haircut."

"Wait. You gave him a spell that gave him that ridiculous combover special, what'd they call it on Saturday Night Live, "the onion roll"?"

"No, I told him he was being a jackass and that if he didn't honor the agreement he really would be. He told me that he could only hear the voices of lawyers but not other people. So, I made the spell start with his ears. He had jackass ears right away and started using that comical haircut to disguise it. I got a pleading call a week later to fix it and I've had a reduced rent at that unit ever since."

Jinx doubled over laughing. "I'd like to see your show some time. What kind of things do you do?"

"My favorite is to perform tricks that everyone thinks they know how they're done and how they can prove them to be fake but to do them with real magic. The look in their eyes when they see that I really did saw a man in half before putting him back together!"

Jinx giggled imagining it.

"So . . . you really saw guys in half in your act?"

Zatanna nodded. "With a spell so that there's no pain and no repercussions. Sometimes I take their shoes off and have them wiggle their toes or tickle their feet when the lower halves of their bodies are 15 feet from their upper halves."

Jinx chuckled some more.

Zatanna looked at the clock. After 2 a.m. She pronounced it very late and offered Jinx her couch. Jinx accepted and moments later Zatanna was back from the hall closet with a blanket and pillow.

Jinx had a comfortable sleep and got Zatanna's phone number and email address in the morning. After serving her a nice breakfast, Zatanna sent Jinx on her way back to Titans Tower almost like a mother sending her daughter off to school.

"Just remember. You're not alone. Besides Wally and his dad and your parents, you have me. Any time you want to talk, give me a call. Send me an email. It doesn't have to be anything earth shattering."

Jinx nodded with a smile and went back to the Tower where Wally finally showed up.

"How'd it-"

She kissed before he could finish the question and wrapped her arms around him. "I like your surprises,fire hair.'


	3. Wasted Oratory

"O Captain, my captain!" came the voice from the hallway at Titans Tower.

Robin hesitated to turn around. The voice was Jinx's. The tone of the voice was angry sarcasm. She was the only one who spoke to him like that. Even Raven's barbs were quiet, under her breath sorts of things. Jinx? He never knew what he'd get from her. How'd Wally ever . . .

He turned around to face her with raised eyebrows. Yeah?

"I've looked all over the Tower for Wally and I can't find him. I really want to talk to him."

Robin shrugged. "I can't help you."

She nodded slowly. "Sooooo . . . you have no idea where he is."

It was a statement, not a question. That was worse. Robin would rather that it had been a question. He also wished she wouldn't dress exactly the same way as when she was fighting them. But she did. Her expression now was almost as fierce as then. She was so hard to predict. Her temper had gotten much better after nearly a year of living with Kid Flash, but Jinx still seemed so odd to him, even more than his girlfriend, the alien. Starfire wasn't aggressive and sarcastic like this. He sometimes wondered how she and Wally worked as a couple. But he could never ask Wally directly. He was so in love with her, even vaguely implied criticism would've seemed terrible to him. And now he could see that she was no less protective of him. He looked up into angry, pink, cat like eyes almost glowing with ire.

"He-he didn't say where he was going. I didn't even know he was gone."

"You're the team's captain . . . . . and you don't know where a super powered asset like Wally is."

She continued staring down at him, two inches taller in her platform shoes, her anger building and building as more thoughts occurred to her.

"What? What am I supposed to tell you?"

Beast Boy, walking by, turned to Jinx. "Oh. I almost forgot. Wally said something about a fire and gave me a hug and asked me to tell you before he left. Uh . . . sorry?"

Beast Boy shrugged and saw that Jinx had turned her ire on him. He quickly morphed into a hummingbird and flew out of the great room but got smacked into a wall by a freak burst of air from the ventilation system. He morphed back to human form as he dropped to the floor and sat there rubbing his head before slinking away.

Jinx turned back toward Robin who'd retreated a few feet away to be next to the windows. She shook her head with an unhappy expression.

"A fire? Wally's out somewhere . . . I have to wait to talk to him because there's a fire somewhere in Jump City that they need Kid freaking Flash to handle?"

"I guess."

"How 'bout you? They can't use a boy wonder?"

"Come on, don't call me that."

"Why is Wally the only one who answers other calls? He's the only one who answers freaking fire calls, isn't he? He's the only one who does regular patrols of the City. He's the only one of you who still answers calls from his old boss. Why's Wally doing all this shit? What is he, some lower caste or something? Is he an untouchable or something? Cuz let me tell you, the boy is completely touchable.But why the hell does he have to do extra work while the rest of you just sit around in the Tower and wait for a suitably big time villain before getting off your asses?"

"What!" Robin was angry back at her now and advanced halfway to her. "That's bullshit. We train all the time. But Wally's got skills that are more adaptable to things like fire calls. He can be there in a second. And I'd love for my relationship with Batman to have been as good as Wally's with Flash so that I might still work with him. But it wasn't and that's just the way it is. I . . . look," Robin paused and exhaled and ran his hand through his spiky hair. "Wally deserves a lot of credit for the extra stuff that he does. But the rest of us aren't making him do it by slacking off or something. It's Wally choice."

Jinx sighed. "Fine. Fine. I-I just want to talk to him. It's kind of frustrating."

Robin opened his mouth to speak again but Jinx had already turned on her platform heels and walked away.

She went back too Wally's quarters on the 13th floorand waited.

And she waited.

And she waited.

She sat in the chair in the corner of the darkened room reading by moonlight with her excellent cat like night vision. At last he came into the room. He vibrated through the wall just to her left, suddenly a red and yellow clad figure there when there was none a split second ago. He had streaks of black soot here and there on his uniform and even his orange hair had been blackened over with ash by one ear. He never saw Jinx sitting there. He pulled off his uniform and almost fell over, catching himself against the door to his bathroom. He gave a little sigh of fatigue and continued on to the shower. Just 15 seconds later he came walking out, looking clean but bleary eyed and ready to keel over. He tossed his towel aside and seemed about to do just that and flop on the bed when Jinx tapped on his shoulder. He didn't jump. He barely reacted.

"Hey exhibitionist.," she said with no anger at all.

"Hey."

"Where've you been? Can we talk?"

"Jeez. I'm wiped out." he whispered and let himself fall limply onto his back atop the bed covers, the back of his head at one side of the bed, his ankles and feet dangling ove the other side. The sight wasn't anything unfamiliar to Jinx. Nor was it unenticing.

She sat down beside him and slowly rubbed the eight prominent squares of his abdominal muscles. Gods what wonderful skin! She couldn't help but think of climbing atop him. She sighed and decided to not look to keep her focus till she delivered her message. She'd been thinking and Zatanna had been right. He was playing a role. To some degree he was playing a role. He must've felt he had to be better than he had been and was trying to be perfect.

"So, where were you?" she asked softly, wanting to have the conversation segue rather than starting right off with her point.

He answered slowly look up at nothing in particular.

" . . . Warehouse fire and . . . housing complex . . . all these people to find . . . all these kids . . . 10 minutes of speeding . . . to find this one girl."

"Look, Wally," she began, looking down at his legs and couldn't even keep looking at them for finding them so perfect. She switched to looking out the window.

"Mmm?"

"In the course of my long talk with Zatanna the other day, something really interesting came up and it has to do with you."

"mm."

"It's about the way you are, Wally, the way you act now," she began as she now ran her hand over his chest. "It's . . . different than the way you were at first, not much but pretty clearly so. And it's not bad. I'm not mad at you and you haven't done anything wrong. You see, the odd thing is that, well, you almost do too much right. I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous. But hear me out. It's like you're trying to be someone else and just being Wally is fine. I love you, Wally. I fell in love with the guy whose room back at his parents' house was a complete mess, the guy who didn't even have a comb, who just expected the wind to sweep his hair back, the guy who would egg Beast Boy on to even more jokes at meetings. There's nothing wrong with being that guy, Wally. You don't have to have your room spotless and always get everything ready for me, meals and baths and towels and roses and even excuses. You make excuses for me to the others all the time. You try to be the perfect protector of me. It's just . . . it's all just . . . it's too much, Wally. I. . . . I feel like I'm under pressure to be the perfect girl because you're there being the perfect boy. And I can't be perfect and I don't know if you can be but you shouldn't feel like you should have to be. I love you with flaws and gaps and stuff, too. Do you see what I'm saying baby? With a little tweeking of things we can both be even better."

Jinx smiled and turned to face him feeling excited, proud that she'd summarized things so nicely. And then she saw. He was asleep. His chest rose and fell slowly beneath her hand. She grunted and gritted her teeth before finally sighing in resignation. Couldn't exactly get mad at the boy for wiping himself out saving a little girl from a fire. Gods, what karma he must have!

She thought for a moment that she might tell him some time later that night. But then she smiled. Wally and I'll have a long talk about something in bed?

Yeah. Right.

He'll wake up in the middle of the night all recharged and find me sleeping next to him. I'll wake up to his kisses and we'll make love the rest of the night.

And it'll be freaking great.

She smirked thinking of the stupid prudes in that editorial in the paper that day, condemning them. You don't deserve joy like we feel, you idiots.

Jinx smiled and rubbed his abs again. I'll give him my little speech again some other time. She started undressing.


	4. Robin the

Wally woke up, again, staring at the back of Jinx's neck. He inhaled deeply. And squeezed her lightly in his arms. Ahhhhh.

Life is good.

He knew that some guys would've found her pale gray skin offputting. He loved it, the uniformity of it, how exotic it was.

And he loved the irony. In a way it almost made her seem delicate. Her? Ha! He stifled a laugh as another thought occurred to him. He backed off and let her roll onto her back. As she started to stretch and yawn, he zipped to crouch over her. He kissed her good morning, reveling in the smile it elicited from her.

"I was thinking about this yesterday. You know what you are?"

She smiled and shook her head no.

"A butterfly," he grinned.

"An insect!"

She got her eyes to momentarily glow pink.

"No, wait! Don't hex my buns or anything. Let me explain! I stopped at the park on the other side of the bay before running across this morning and saw all these butterfies crossing the meadow on the other side of the street. They were so pretty," he said leaning forward and rubbing his nose on hers.

"Uh huh. And how does this reflect well on me?" She asked looking up and grabbing a handful of tangled orange hair and squeezing lightly.

Wally chuckled. "They're just like you. Colorful and beautiful," he said looking at her pink hair then directly down into her pink feline eyes. "So lovely," he whispered, "that you start to think that this is a creature made simply to add beauty to the world, to remind you about the beauty of the world. But they migrate hundreds, sometimes even thousands of miles. They make epic journeys those delicate looking things because they're actually fantastically strong, not delicate but resilient beyond belief."

She smiled up at him then grabbed his neck with both hands and pulled him down into another kiss.

When their lips finally separated he sighed.

"I've gotta go to class, Virginia. I'm running late. Robin'll kill me if I'm not ready again. And after class I'm going to my dad's house in Keystone City. He wants to help me study for my finals on Wednesday."

She smirked at his delighted smile. He loved attention from his adopted father even being grilled in preparation for exams. She shook her head at how ridiculous it was.

He knew what she was thinking. He gave a shrug and a smile and pulled on his shorts, socks and chinos beside the bed. He had to stop with his button down shirt untucked. He could feel her rubbing him.

"Um, it's easier for me to finish dressing if your hand's not back there," said Wally nodding over his shoulder.

"I like having my hand back there."

"But, you see, I have a hard enough time fitting into pants back there. I'm really sure the tailor didn't alter these enough to accomodate your hand."

"Terrible lack of foresight," said Jinx. "Any pants sold to a boy like you should assume the presence of a girl's hand back there. I mean, duh!" she laughed. He couldn't help but laugh too before composing himself.

"I think these're the old fashioned kind of pants where it's assumed the girl will pat your butt from outside the pants and just kinda wait till you take 'em off."

Jinx removed her hand and smiled at him as he finished dressing. "More misogyny." she mumbled and then her expression bloomed into another smile toward which he bent down and kissed her before he was gone out the door into the hallway.

He was surprised that Robin wasn't there waiting for him. He usually was, tapping at his watch, and making Wally feel irresponsible while looking a bit nerdy with his black hair combed into a neatly parted style very different from the spiky way he wore it as Robin. Wally looked left down the hall. No Robin. He looked right. No Robin.

Hmmph.

He walked around the hall to Robin's room on the other side of the building.

Whump! Whump! Whump!

Whump! Whump! Whump!

The wall trembled slightly. Wally thought he could almost hear what he guessed to be Starfire's voice urgently calling out something unintelligible. He smirked.

Whump! Whump! Wh

He knocked twice on the door. The rhythmic impacts against the wall stopped. The room seemed to become quiet. He thought he could almost hear Robin's voice.

"Dick!" he half shouted. "It's Wally! It's almost time to go."

The door opened just a crack. Dick Grayson's face showed but nothing else in the dark interior of the room.

"Sorry, Wally. Just, uh-"

Slap!

Dick was interrupted and winced in pain as Wally heard a tremendous spank over his pal's shoulder.

"Ow! Jeez Kory!"

"You are a bad boy to keep friend Wally waiting . . . Dick," Wally heard an unseen Starfire say in a tone so clear that he could easily imagine her mischievous grin. And then he heard Starfire's signature giggle.

"-just meet me at the T-Car," Dick grunted quickly.

Wally smirked and nodded. The door closed cutting off the sounds of Starfire giggling and Robin's deeper laugh in response. Wally took the elevator up to the roof and sauntered slowly over to the T-Car in its garage enclosure. He opened the door and waited there for Robin.

Robin surprised him by emerging from the elevators just over a minute later, looking every inch the prep schoolboy he and Wally pretended to be in their two classes at Jump City Academy.

Wally knew Dick, the ultra fastidious leader was waiting for some kind of remark. He knew Dick wanted to get it over and done with. So he waited. He didn't say anything to Dick on the whole ride to the Academy. He buried his face in one of his textbooks instead.

Dick Grayson looked over as he piloted the T-car across the bay in aerial mode to the garage where they always landed and then switched to ground mode with camouflaging fenders and body surfaces whirring into place to make it look like just another mid priced three year old sedan.

He looked over again at his orange haired pal, feeling impatient now. Well? Come on. Hit me with it! Get it over with! But Wally just turned the page of his calculus book.

"That last one was really tough. Did you have trouble with that one, too?" asked Wally, not looking up from his book.

Dick sighed impatiently. "Uh, yeah, that was tricky," he muttered.

What-what the hell's going on? He's not gonna say anything? What? I call him Porn Flash and Rabbit Flash and he . . . ?

He frowned and stared at Wally. Nothing. No sign of anything. With a sigh, Dick Grayson put the T-car in gear and started driving to Jump City Academy. As he drove, expertly navigating traffic, as usual, another thought occurred to him. Is this what he expects of me? He-he thinks that me being late for doing it with Kory is par for the course? Is that what they all think of me, that I'm . . .

He stared at Wally again as they got out of the car but his best friend's expression was almost blank, just a little frown of concentration and a quick check of his calculus book again. Dick shook his head.

Wally didn't look at him once more as they went to calculus class or as they listened to the lecture and took notes. For Dick Grayson it was like an itch that he couldn't reach to scratch. Someone else had to do it for him but he wouldn't. So deeply ingrained was his particular superhero sense of justice that it only felt right to him to be reproached on even the most minor of failings. Spilling Raven's tea, dropping Cyborg's new circuit on the floor, accidentally throwing out Beast Boy's tofu because it looked rancid. How could Gar tell when it wasn't? Yeccchhh! Robin was all about justice, complete and immediate justice. An appropriate measure of praise or punishment for everything. That's what his life was. Wasn't it just a slippery slope from accepting small injustices to accepting larger ones.

Dick Grayson looked across the aisle to Wally Allen at the next desk over. Wally was totally immersed in the lecture. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the girl on the other side of Wally staring at his orange haired pal. Janet or Janice or something like that, right? Great. Another one he has to fend off without giving any clue who we really are. Sigh.

But Wally didn't seem to even know he was there any more than he didn't know that girl was ogling him.He glared at Wally. This tiny failing unacknowledged was driving him nuts. Like the princess who could detect a pea under multiple mattresses, superhero Robin couldn't stand his tiny wrong to be officially unaccounted for. He reached across the aisle and tapped on Wally's shoulder.

"Look, Wally, the-"

"Mister Grayson!" the teacher interrupted him with his deep throated voice and a glare. Dick pulled his arm back to his desk as the whole class turned to look at him.

"You and your friend, Mr. Allen, can socialize after class, Mr. Grayson. Until then you'll just have to concern yourself with calculus. Agreed, Mr. Grayson?"

"Yes sir," grumbled Dick.

"Don't get me in trouble, you dope!" Wally whispered over his shoulder and turned back to the teacher. Dick shook his head and ground his teeth together. The irony. Getting in trouble trying to socialize with my pal, mister social. Sigh. Slowly Dick turned his focus to the lecture. But all the while in the back of his mind was that itch needing to be scratched. Is that really what's expected of me now? Because I'm not going to be late for things. I'm not. No matter how great things are with Kory, I've got my responsibilities. And I was almost late this time and it was wrong. But I admit it. Why's firehair not acknowledging it?

Finally, the bell rang and they left the classroom and made their way to their usual high backed church pew style benchoverlooking the Jump City Academy quadrangle. It was warm enough that they sat just a little apart, not compelled to sit hip to hip for warmth as they had in cold weather. Wally immediately opened his biochemistry book. Dick stared at him angrily.

"Well? Come on. Let me have it."

"What?" asked Wally glancing his way innocent as could be but unable to control the slightest upturn of his lips.

Dick grinned. "Ha! You know what!"

"What can I say? You're a bad boy, Grayson," said Wally and he have a little slap to the side of Dick Grayson's rear. Dick Grayson just rolled his eyes and shook his head. Wally laughed and gave his pal a shove.

"Our leader the loooooooove machine!" he laughed under his breath then started singing in falsetto imitation of a song he'd heard on the oldies station playing in Cyborg's room.

"He's just a love machine.

And he only works for Kory it's true

Oooo-"

"Shutup," Dick grinned and gave Wally a punch in the shoulder

"What'd you call me before?" lauged Wally, "Porn Flash. How 'bout Robin . . . the Porn Wonder?" asked Wally and he gave Dick a shove then fell into convulsions of laughter.

Dick pushed back and they ended up in a typically Dick-Wally shoving match, that ended, as most all of them did, in a draw with both of them laughing. When Dick finally sat down he turned to his pal.

"I swear to you. She told me it was a half hour earlier than it actually was. She tricked me into more lovin'!"

Wally nodded skeptically. "Yeah. Right. I bet she has to use deceit after deceit to get your engine revving. I'll have to remember that one. Oh, Jinx lied about what time it was . . . . At least Jinx doesn't spank me."

Dick fairly leapt at him now as Wally fell over on his own, laughing.

"She doesn't freaking . . . ," Dick looked around to make sure no one heard that word. ". . spank me. She doesn't! I think she did that because you were there outside the door. She doesn't . . . do that, but . . . . ," he looked around again before continuing in a half whisper. "Damn, she's obsessed with-with . . . " Dick nodded over his shoulder.

"With bat boy booty?" smiled Wally as if just trying to be helpful. Dick pushed him around some more, meeting almost no resistance as Wally was laughing too hard to fight. Finally he let him up and they sat side by side. He didn't look at Wally.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Is that normal? I mean, she's always . . . . I mean, sometimes I wonder if I'm gonna look . . . "

"Dick. I've known exactly one girl in my life for more than a date or two and a few minutes kissing."

"Well?"

"Dick! My girl's from this planet. Are you sure a comparison's worthwhile?"

"Wally! Just answer the question. I-I wanna know. Is Jinx the same way about your . . "

Wally rolled his eyes. Oh alright.

"Completely."

Dick let out a happy chuckle. "Really?"

Wally sighed. "Yeah. She never misses an opportunity to put her hand . . there."

Dick let out another happy laugh and the feeling of relief in it was obvious to Wally. He looked at his smiling pal. Sometimes he forgot what a socially sheltered life Robin had led being with Batman and then as the relentless leader of the Titans. Circus to Batman to Titans. Did he ever experience normal social relations? What'd he ever heard about girls and sex? Did Robin ever go to makeout parties in junior high school or have even a few semi-normal dates like he'd had?

"And-and what do you do about it?" asked Dick in a feverish whisper.

"What do you mean what do I do about it?" Wally was genuinely perplexed.

He looked at Dick. Dick was completely serious.

"I don't do anything about it. We-we please each other. If she gets a kick out of how I look or even part of me, well, I mean . . . . great. It's not like I don't fixate on her just the same. And she's got just as much . . desire as I do. Why shouldn't she?"

Dick nodded earnestly.

"There's so much misinformation out there for a guy. The-the biggest misconception I got from other boys when they talked about-about . . . sex when I was a kid was that it's all about . . . scoring points, something you did and the girl just, I don't know, accepted, as you built your score almost, I don't know, to impress the other guys, to tell them. But," he momentarily frowned. "It would be such low grade sex without the feeling. Now that I'm with Jinx, I'd-I'd do anything for her and I see that it's not like that at all. I mean, I get mypleasure, hell, more than I ever knew I could, more than I can . . . ," he shook his head in wonder. "But what I really want is to make love to her and drive her around the bend, to make her feel more than she can stand, to make it so good that both of us are just in awe of what we feel for each other on, like, every level."

Dick nodded, his expression completely serious. "That's-that's how it is with-with me and Kory," he whispered.

"I think that's how it's supposed to be."

Dick nodded agreement. The two teen heroes shared a smile and sat back on the bench overlooking the quadrangle. Friendship cemented even further. They tended to their own thoughts for the remainder of the hour before their next class. When biochemistry was over, Wally went back to the T-car with Dick but, once he got in, slapped his own forehead.

"Oh, jeez. I've gotta get going. I'm gonna go to my dad's in Keystone City."

Before Dick could even speak, Wally changed from prep school blazer and chinos etc into his red and yellow second skin. He now had his books wrapped neatly insidehis clothes.

"See ya at the Tower in two days Allen," said Dick with a pat of his shoulder and a smile.

"Don't be too bad of a boy, Grayson," chuckled Wally with a pat in returnand he was off, a red and yellow blur.


	5. Speedsters one

Kid Flash sprinted from Jump City to Keystone City with his Jump City Academy clothes and books in a neat bundle under his arm, speeding along like a running back carrying the football all the way to the Keystone City airport fifteen hundred miles away. There, he changed to his regular clothes in a parking garage, returned his Kid Flash uniform into his special ring and picked up his books. He flagged down a cab at the main terminal and gave the driver the address of Flash's home. He sat back with a smile of anticipation.

Anyone else would've had the smile wiped off his face. The driver was outrageously aggressive making his way out of the airport. He looked back a couple times at his orange haired teenage passenger in the rearview mirror, apparently wondering if he was scaring the kidwith his fast driving. Each time, the kid had no expression. This emboldened the driver and he sped even more outrageously. He looked again. Wally only smiled placidly. If you only knew mister. If you only knew. Would you be scared of the "sudden" movements of a giant tortoise? That's what this is like for me. He pictured Jinx, not back in Jump City but sitting beside him in the cab and how she would laugh at him knowing, without a word, how this rate of travel would exasperate him. He pictured her laugh, exactly how she'd laugh, how her beautiful face would look. He could almost hear the sound of her carefree chuckle and he laughed out loud himself. The driver glanced back. What? The way I cut off that chevy was funny?

Oh well, Wally sighed to himself. Have to make things look at least reasonably normal to all his neighbors. He can't have his adopted son showing up from his private school on the west coast without cars ever dropping him off. How would that look? Still, he was so anxious to see Flash, to see Dad! Just have to deal with the glacial pace of this, he reminded himself looking out the window as they eked along the highway at 80 miles an hour. Sigh. I was going soooo much faster!

At last they were there. He smirked getting out of the cab and as he paid the driver. He imagined Speedy and some of the others making fun of him, calling him "cornball" and "nerd" and other stuff. Hmmph. Excited to have my homework checked and to do a bunch of chores. God. Or . . . maybe just happy to be with my dad no matter what the circumstances.

Dad seemed like the right term, the right way for him to refer to Flash. He'd debated calling him "Barry", but that seemed too weird. He didn't think of himself being on the same level of the hero game as Flash. Even in normal terms, he was such a mature, strong minded man. He couldn't just assert that he was that man's equal. It didn't seem right. Adoptive father was just too weird sounding. And any use of the term"father" was some reminder of his literal origins. He didn't like to think about his actual father, Professor Zoom. That was awkward. But a dad was the man who was there, who cared and watched out for you.

Your father created you but Dad loved you. Flash was Dad, Wally's first one.

Wally walked up the drive and came upon his dad, in shorts and a t-shirt clipping the hedges at a normal pace. He immediately dropped the clippers and gave Wally a hug and a pat on the back. "Hi Dad!" and "Hi Son!" sufficed as verbal adornments of the hug. Wally went inside and changed into similar yard work clothes at super speed, out of habit, but then had to wait a minute so that his re-emergence didn't look funny to any neighbors outside.

In short order, Wally was put to work mowing, raking and then spreading lawn fertilizer. There seemed to be neighbors going by every so often. He was never quite sure if somebody might be watching him, so he had to do everything at normal speed. It wasn't so bad. It helped out his father, who probably would've just had to do it all at normal speed himself if Wally hadn't. And sons were supposed to do these things, weren't they? There was a circle of obligation and affection that was supposed to connect family. Wasn't there? As Wally finished mowing and started raking, he saw his dad smile at him. He smiled bashfully back and raked, lost in his thoughts.

Life had such a comfortable vibe when he was staying with his dad, a different vibe. Flash was protective of him in a way that no one was or ever had been. Robin acted as the Titans' leader and usually, to a degree, as a sort of big brother to him. But sometimes he was the big brother to socially uncertain Robin. And that was fine. He and Jinx looked out for each other. But that was totally different.

At times he felt a little odd for enjoying his subordinate role in the household. His dad would make him go to bed when he thought Wally should get extra sleep. He'd wake him up. He'd cook. He'd lay out plans for all the events of Wally's day sometimes. He'd make plans for them to go to baseball games or the Science Center or other places. He was a doting dad. It felt odd because Wally had now become accustomed to, in effect, living on his own with no supervision. And he was proud that, at just less than 16 years old, he was managing it pretty well.

And yet, he liked being supervised by his dad, every silly little check in on him, every needless admonition to watch out for this or be careful for that, every question about his homework. Alone, each one might've seemed like nagging. Together it was love. His dad loved him. It felt good.

He finished raking and started spreading lawn fertilizer. He glanced at his dad clipping hedges as he passed him each time. Wally realized he had smiled slightly each time. He couldn't help it. He felt the same toward his dad.

Near the end of the yard work, Wally happened to be out by the road as one of the neighbors passed by walking her dog. He went through the usual awkward process. He'd been through it a half dozen times now, of introduction as Barry Allen's adopted son. They all reacted the same. He could have spoken their lines for them.

Adopted son? . . . .Oh, nice to meet you, Wally . . . So handsome! . . . How did you become . . . Oh . . . your own parents didn't . . want you . . . I see.

Then there was the almost overt inspection of his body. It seemed even worse this time with him in mid length shorts and a t-shirt. More skin visible. Maybe they thought they'd see scars from beatings or abuse or molestation or whatever it was that they imagined had been done to him. He wasn't sure. The real hurt hadn't left physical scars. But the little woman with the pekingese gave him as thorough a once over as any girl at a rave or club ever had.

Mr. Allen came over and said hello to his neighbor, well, neighbor two houses removed, and told her "He was my nephew but his situation wasn't very good for him and his parents willingly gave him up to me."

Somehow, the real affection in his voice blunted her almost salacious curiosity and Wally saw that she barely looked at him this time. After a few more words with his dad, she asked him how he liked being with Mr. Allen.

"Well, I'm boarding at a private school in Jump City most of the time," he said using their agreed upon lie and then breaking into a grin, "but it's great being around Dad."

With a nod that professed understanding, the woman and her dog were off. In short order, Wally Allen and his dad, Barry Allen, went inside. Wally showered and started on his homework from Jump City Academy while Flash took his turn. Wally had exams coming up in both his calculus and biochemistry classes and when his dad emerged from the hall in his bathrobe, he not only checked all Wally's homework, he grilled Wally about all the topics that might come up on his exams. Wally made a few mistakes that Flash pointed out, but gently and with more focus on correcting mistakes than punishing them. And Wally made very few mistakes. He was a very good student now with the help of Flash. It didn't hurt to have book lover Jinx as the one sharing his bed, either. He could go over his school books while she was reading her George Eliot or Isak Dinesen. Then they'd make love, the intellectual and physical rhythms of their lives perfectly matched. He was consistently getting a half grade better than Robin in their classes, helped, also, by the fact that Robin was even less experienced in handling his relationship with Starfire than Kid Flash was his relationship with Jinx.

When Flash finished grilling him he gave Wally a big hug. "You'll do great, Wally. You'll do just great." Wally felt Christmas morning warm. He couldn't stop grinning and he thought of how much time Flash had put in checking his calculus and biochemistry work. The man he'd thought was his father till age 15 had never spent five minutes checking his work. All that time dying for attention, so desperate to please and . . . . nothing. It could have been this. Why wasn't it? Just because I wasn't his! He sighed and reminded himself, as he had so many times. Forget the anger and focus on the love.

"Thanks for everything, dad," he said softly, resulting in his orange hair getting all mussed by his dad.

"What do you wanna do now, Wally?"

Wally's eyes brightened. "Can we spar?"

It didn't take much convincing for Flash to say yes. He said he had a surprise for later but, sure, they could spar.

He was in the habit of offering it as a reward to Wally for doing his chores, but he loved it too. Wally was the only person against whom he could really cut loose and use all his speed. And now that his adopted son weighed almost a hundred fifty pounds, it was actually a reasonably fair fight. Wally had, if anything, an even better physique than he did. Maybe it was his background being the son of a genetically engineered 29th century guy. Maybe it was the fact that the speedforce had saturated his body at the beginning of puberty, just as he was starting to grow, reshaping him more easily. But as good shape as Flash was in, and he looked just like he did at age 22, a track star just out of college and starting to work in the police science lab, only a few crow's feet to show that he wasn't that recent graduate, as toned as he was, Wally was better. Flash marveled. The V shape of his torso was even more pronounced for having such a small waist. His calves and glutes. Wow. Pound for pound, his adopted son was stronger. He could bench press just 10 pounds less than Flash. He had to smile with pride at the sight of Wally. Once full grown, Wally'd be stronger and faster than he'd been and it wasn't too far away. His paternity may have been a legal construct, but his paternal pride in Wally was fiercely genuine.

The basement of the Allen home was lined with mats and padding for workouts. They changed into their uniforms at super speed and zipped downstairs. Both were grinning with anticipation. Each had only the other, in all the world, as a plausible sparring partner who would allow him to use all his speed. And it helped that they both healed super fast as well. Neither had the sort of killer instinct that Batman had or that he'd beat into Robin. Knowing that the bruises wouldn't last long let them go all out.

There were fantastic flurries of fighting that happened in just a second.

PunchKickBlockKickPunchPunchBlockUppercutJumpbackLungePunchSpinkickPunchBlockShovePunchDuckPunchPunch!

Twenty moves and more per second, the two speedsters went at it, boxing, wrestling, martial arts whatever each thought would help him win, fighting faster than any observer could possibly have followed, just blurs of red and yellow to anyone else but a regular fight to the fastest boy and man alive.

Momentary pauses in action with the two gasping for air and circling warily would explode into super speed action.

SpinkickBlockPunchBlockKickPunchGrappleShoveLeapingkickPunchPunchBlockPunchKickUppercutElbowPunchBlockPunchSpinkick!

They each had their flurries. Kid Flash surprised his adopted father with how good he'd gotten at the spinning kicks Robin had been teaching him. He caught an onrushing Flash with one and knocked him halfway across the room to the wall. But Flash was still the better boxer and when they ended up wrestling, still had 25 pounds on Kid Flash as well as the knowledge that his strength advantage was even more pronounced in the upper body. He made their grappling a contest of upper body muscle and pushed Kid Flash off balance then threw him half way across the room. But Kid Flash kept coming back with a look of fierce determination always colored just a little bit by a smile, just a little bit. He was giving his all and punching as hard as he could but there was always the open recognition that it was Flash he was fighting against, that it was his dad and that fierce as he could be in this contest, it was fun.

The super speed brawl of every kind of fighting lasted fifteen minutes, the equivalent of hours of fighting for normal people. It ended with both speedsters gasping for breath and an exhausted Kid Flash lunging at Flash with a punch that missed by three feet. He fell to all fours on the mat, unable to move a muscle.

"You . . . give up . . . old man?" he panted then chuckled.

Flash smiled and stepped over to him and grabbed a handful of his yellow topped uniform at the scruff of Wally's neck and, with some difficulty, lifted Wally and pulled the limp bodied teen over to the side of the room where he put him down seated against the padded wall. He patted his head.

"Be right back son," he said and sped off. He returned in a split second with a juice and a bagel for each of them. Kid Flash drank the juice in one ravenous slug.

"God . . . . You still have . . . speed left even after I'm totally wiped out."

Flash let himself slide down the wall to sit beside his protege.

"Not much. You've almost caught up to me, Wally," he said, reaching one arm over to give him a hug about the shoulders. "Yer gettin' so good. I'm so proud of you!" he said giving him another hug.

Wally felt the sweat soaked hair on the back of his head standing up.

"Your progress is just tremendous. Dick's making a real fighter out of you. Hey, remember the first time we sparred and your aunt walked in?"

Wally grinned. "Don't hurt the boy, Barry!" he said imitating his aunt's frantic voice from the stairway. "Don't you dare hurt him, Barry!" Wally continued with his imitation and both he and Flash remembered how the next thing Aunt Iris saw was 12 year old Kid Flash flying halfway across the room and landing a kick to Flash's chest that sent him into the wall. And Aunt Iris's expression changing and her saying, "Oh . . . . . Well then give the little shit as good as you get from 'im."

"Oh . . . Well then give the little shit as good as you get from 'im," Wally repeated in his best Aunt Iris imitation and he and Flash both laughed. Wally ate half his bagel and glanced at Flash beside him.

"You never gave as good as you got, till now. You always let me hit more."

Flash just reached and patted his head with his other hand. He gave him a squinty smile. Of course!

"Dick's told me about his time with Batman and . . . wow. I mean . . .! He beat the crap out of Dick over and over to toughen him up. I . . ."

"Well, this may sound callous, but Batman probably knew what he was doing. Dick doesn't have any power. He had to develop a fighting instinct like Batman, to be relentless like Batman."

Wally ate a couple bites of his bagel. "I-I know, Dad. Dick and I have talked about it, what different powers mean for the people who have 'em and everything. But still . . ! . . . . .Dick was just a kid."

"Wally. Dick turned into a terrific hero. I'm inclined to give Batman the benefit of the doubt."

"I'm just glad you didn't treat me like that."

"Wally. You were a different boy in a different situation. You'd gotten a tremendous superpower and, well, I knew you. I knew you were a little . . wounded . . . that you hadn't been treated the way you should've been."

"Dick's parents had just been killed."

"But up to that point, Dick was about as strong as could be."

"But Batman made him weaker mentally. I mean, he made him strong for fighting but he got Dick so caught up in his same obsessiveness that Dick couldn't interact with people normally. He couldn't much enjoy anything. He was just Dick Grayson, human crime fighting machine. And that's good to a point but machines break down. People can heal themselves and each other and people grow."

"Did you help fix Dick Grayson, crime fighting machine?"

"Maybe some," Wally shrugged. "I . . . . he and I are best friends. I think he can relax a bit more now and blow off steam. I think he's in more of a long term kind of rhythm with his life."

"That's a good teammate, Wally," said Flash and he squeezed his adopted son about the shoulders again.

"He's not just my teammate, Dad! He's my friend. To me, he's Dick as much as he's Robin."

Flash nodded. Eventually he spoke again. "And how's Jinx?"

Wally's eyes went wide and he smiled.

"I . . . she . . . I mean . . . ," Wally sighed and his expression changed as he tried to collect his thoughts. "She's wonderful," he finally blurted out, as he recalled one particular image of her, Jinx smiling up at him from his bed as he returned from the bathroom, the soft light of a full moon playing across her face. When he finally looked over, Flash was still waiting for him to talk. Slowly he collected his thoughts.

"Being with her . . . being a Titan and everything . . . I'm-I'm not the-the 'me' that I was just a year ago. I . . . I mean, there's not anything wrong with that. But I can't be that guy again. That guy who was just starting to feel okay about himself, whose-whose life was saved, not in just one rescue but over-over time by his aunt and uncle? He's gone."

"I liked him," Flash declared softly.

Kid Flash smiled as a thank you. He looked up and enjoyed Flash's smile back at him.

"Yesterday," he began and his expression became pensive. "I got up after a night of-of . . being with Jinx and got something from the kitchen and said hello to Robin and Starfire, my friends and went up on the roof, the roof of . . my home. That incredible structure is my home. And I looked across the bay at Jump City and even the City looked different. I felt . . bigger I guess and the city didn't seem as imposing as it used to. It was-it was a little like the time I went back to the elementary school I attended. It looked so small, like it couldn't really be the place that half scared me, could it? Well, the City doesn't look small but kind of comfortable and familiar. I just feel so, so . . . on top of things. Does that make any sense to you? Did you ever have a moment like that with Central City?"

Flash nodded. He took a couple bites of his bagel then explained.

"About six months after I became the Flash. I'd worked so hard out of fear at first and I remember looking out at the skyline from the Central City Bank tower and noticing that I felt so different. I knew I could handle things. I knew I could protect the City. I was so proud."

"Yeah! Me too! That's part of what I was feeling. Like, I'm Kid Fucking Flash -ooo- sorry."

Flash shrugged and patted his head to signify it was okay.

"Like, I'm Kid Freaking Flash and I'm going to protect everyone out there. You try messing with them and I'll open a can of super speed whupass on you!"

Kid Flash looked for his adopted dad's reaction. Flash smiled. Super speed whupass!. "I like the new guy, too."

There was a silence of a few moments.

"Dad? What's a singularity?"

"In what context?"

"Well, in terms of dimensions and . . . physics."

"How the heck does this come up?"

"Well, I forgot what I read about it and I was being examined by doctors from S.T.A.R. Labs the other day. They said that they've just about given up trying to figure me out, figure us out, you know, super speed and they repeated all the theories they had. One of 'em that they laughed about was that I create a singularity in my body and that I draw energy from a resource in another dimension."

"They said that?"

"Yeah, but they thought it was crazy."

He looked at Flash's unblinking expression.

"So . . . . you don't think it's crazy, do you?"

Flash shook his head slightly. "Anyway, a singularity is when something in physics goes to infinity. Mass, volume, speed. Something makes calculations impossible."

"The guys from S.T.A.R. Labs said that nobody wanted to study me any more because what I do is impossible."

"They're right," smiled Flash, "Unless that initial burst of energy through each of our bodies, that electricity traveling at the speed of light through a cocktail of powerful chemicals, somehow created connections to another dimension from which we're able to draw speedforce energy. Come on," Flash said standing up and pulling Kid Flash up after him. "There're a couple web sites with good discussions of theories about singularities and wormholes and all this stuff."

Wally was still trying to wrap his mind around those ideas and hour later, and ready to stop trying, when Flash suggested they do something else.

"How 'bout we go to the museum?" he asked. He didn't have to tell Kid Flash which one he meant. He was speaking of the Flash Museum, of course, in the outskirts of Keystone City. It was the City's tribute to the good works of its protector, The Flash.

Kid Flash nodded quickly. Sure!

He'd been there once before he ever had super speed, a special treat of Aunt Iris's to take her 10 year old Flash fan nephew to the Flash Museum. He'd stayed for as long as Aunt Iris's schedule allowed, staring wide eyed at every exhibit and trying to memorize the text of all the displays. Aunt Iris bought him a Flash t-shirt, red with a yellow lightning bolt on the chest, to remember the day and he wore it almost every day under all his shirts till he outgrew it.

Then he became a Flash. And his appreciation for his mentor's good deeds lost some of its gee whiz edge, but perhaps deepened. Kid Flash knew how difficult it was to perform all the life saving acts that Flash did. He realized how much unseen work went into being a hero and how many dangers were avoided even in the course of missions that the headline writers and tv news made seem easy. And he came to know what a terrific guy the man under the red Flash mask was. The idea of a museum to honor Flash still made perfect sense to the older, more mature Wally.

It was just getting dark and the Flash Museum had just closed. The last cars were leaving the parking lot as two parallel blurs, one red, the other red and yellow, passed through the lot in a fraction of a second. They both vibrated through the entrance doors and stopped at the office of the museum's curator, Dexter Myles. The tall, white haired, distinguished looking Myles sat behind his desk punching numbers into an adding machine.

"Good evening, Dexter."

"Good evening Flash! Oh, and Kid Flash, too!"

"Good evening, Mr. Myles."

"What brings you gentlemen here?"

"Just wanted to show him the new display," said Flash.

Mr. Myles gave a knowing smile. "Understandably. And, Flash! Attendance and receipts are up 6 percent over last year."

"Good work, Dexter!"

"Sir. It's you."

Flash smiled. "We won't be that long Dexter," he said and pulled Kid Flash out of the room and into the museum. They walked around at a normal pace, Flash just following Kid Flash wherever the teen's curiosity took him. It'd been almost a year since Kid Flash had toured the museum. That'd been a visit by Wally Allen with his pal Dick Grayson when Dick was visiting the Allens.

Dick Grayson was shocked. He knew of the place but seeing it and touring it with Wally had amazed him. Maybe it was the difference between east coast Gotham City and midwestern Keystone City. Maybe it was the difference between Batman and The Flash. Whatever it was, he knew, immediately and with certainty that there couldn't be anything like this for Batman. There would never be a Batman Museum in Gotham City.

A part of the diffference could be seen right away. Just inside the door was a long white wall with writing on it and a series of indelible magic markers on little stands a few feet back from it. Kid Flash wasn't sure when the practice had started. It wasn't something that had been planned. Markers hadn't been put there for people to do it. It just happened. One day, a few people who'd been rescued by Flash had visited the museum. And they wrote brief descriptions of how they'd been saved along with "Thank You, Flash!" and "God Bless You, Flash!" on the huge white wall by the entrance. The janitor showed it to Mr. Myles whowas going to have the wall professionally cleaned to erase them but rather liked the genuine sentiment. So, he waited to ask Flash what he thought.

And then more and more messages were written. The wall was now called the 'Thank You Wall' and it started to become just covered with messages of thanks and accounts of rescues by Flash. To conserve space, 'TYF', short for Thank You, Flash! came to be the standard conclusion of every message.

Dick Grayson had stared at the almost half black wall in amazement. There must have been hundreds of messages. He walked back and forth, inspecting it. But, no, he couldn't find one bit of graffiti. He couldn't find one obscene pictures or joke phone number message. It was nothing but spontaneous affection for the City's protector. He shook his head. Amazing. Batman was kind of an ambivalent figure. Everyone in Gotham city knew he was chasing down the Joker and all the other bitter psychos who threatened their city. But they'd also gleaned that he wasn't exactly a nice guy himself. And he always kept himself apart from them, out of sight, in the shadows or above them, looking down and waiting to swoop. Flash and Kid Flash wore bright uniforms openly announcing their presence. And they were on the ground among the people. They talked to people. Robin marveled that Kid Flash seemed to almost want to talk to everyone. Anyone who had a set of eyes on the street, cops, cabbies, doormen, construction workers, anyone who might pass along information, Kid Flash seemed to know them.

The people of Keystone City felt a connection to Flash and Kid Flash and they loved them. That's why there was a Flash Museum.

Kid Flash walked along among the displays. More kept being added all the time to commemorate Flash's deeds. Kid Flash stopped at another new one, a tribute to the very first Flash, the Flash of the 1940's. Wally had met him a couple times, through Flash. His secret identity was Jay Garrick. Wally called him "Grandpa Jay", a moniker that the senior citizen Flash felt a bit uncomfortable about but allowed.

Kid Flash moved on to other displays, pictures of Flash, statues of Flash in mid sprint. There were many of these. Flash said they'd been made using a device borrowed from the Justice League that used a series of lasers to carve the statues out of hard plastic. They were then painted over by the staff or sometimes squeezed into old Flash uniforms that would've been thrown out otherwise but could be fixed up a bit and pulled over a statue that wouldn't damage it any further.

He came upon the display commemorating himself and smiled at the statue at the front of it, a life size statue of Flash and next to him Kid Flash from around the time that Wally'd first become Kid Flash. The statue of the two of them looked almost as though it was made out of gold. But Wally knew it was just a certain kind of thatplastic that was then shaped the by lasers using precise computer coordinates of the two bodies fromscanned pictures.

Wally thought it was a great representation of Flash, so strong looking and pointing something out to his young protege. He looked just like the wonderful mentor that he was. But he groaned at the sight of his even more slender 12 year old self. Flash looked at him quizzically.

"No wonder I was embarrassed to be seen in public," Wally muttered.

"What? You looked fine."

"Dad! I felt like I was naked.A 12 year old boy shouldn't be wearing a skin tight suit even if he's a Flash. I mean, " he gestured with one hand to the front and back of the Kid Flash statue. "Look at that butt. And my . . . equipment. God!"

Flash rubbed Kid Flash's head. "Yer suit's just as tight now."

"But I'm almost 16 now. And I'm used to wearing this. Heck, this is the only thing that feels natural for me to wear now."

"How do you like that version of you?" asked Flash pointing to a display further along.

Kid Flash zipped up to it. This was new. It hadn't been there when he'd visited with Robin. It was a 15 foot wide display about him and how he'd become a Teen Titan. To one side of the text, and pictures of Titans Tower and Kid Flash with Robin and other Titans was a set of statues of all the Titans. In front was the statue of a smiling Kid Flash. He walked around the 3D copy of him.

"How's that guy look?" asked Flash. "His suit's pretty tight, too, isn't it?"

Kid Flash glanced at him. Alright, alright. He circled around the copy of him again. It was the same size as him now. It looked just like him. He liked it.

"Thanks."

"Thanks what? It's the Flash museum. You're a Flash. If you accomplish something like becoming a Titan or maybe some day a Justice Leaguer, then it should be recognized."

He gave Kid Flash a pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks just the same."

After another friendly pat on the back, Kid Flash zipped ahead to some other displays. He pressed his face to the glass of the Rogues display. "Hey what's that bazooka looking thing near the Gorilla Grodd replica. I never saw that one before."

Flash rolled his eyes. Kid Flash caught the note of embarassment.

"That's the fat ray gun."

"The . . fat ray gun?"

Flash sighed and pointed to a life size statue of him behind a placard that read "The Thousand Pound Flash".

Kid Flash burst into laughter. "A thousand pounds! You?"

Flash nodded. "Really, I'm surprised sometimes that rogues don't recycle some of the things that worked and try to use them as part of new plans more but once they get beat they just throw these things away. That thing turned me into the biggest fatso on the planet. Fattest man alive, I guess."

Kid Flash giggled."Your suit didn't pop?"

"Nope. Itstretched to hold my supersized butt. Yours'd hold you too if you got that big."

Before he finished his sentence, Kid Flash had zipped into the display and was standing behind the statue of an incredibly fat Flash. He gawked at the depiction of a body with giant rolls of fat comically squeezed into a Flash suit. He frowned at the enormous butt and moved to stand an inch behind it. He held his red gloved hands at the sides of his own slender hips then a foot out, then two feet out, then as wide as Flash's hips had been. God!

He zipped over to the next display and tapped on the wooden chest of a life sized marionette of Flash.

"Hey, a lot of this stuff is new!" he said to Flash, who still stood on the audience side of the rail in front of the displays. He zipped over to a mirror in the outline of Flash's body then another weird statue of Flash with the top of his head hugely inflated.

"Let me guess. Trickster?" Kid Flash asked from three displays over.

"Yup."

Kid Flash zipped back to the statue of thousand pound Flash, shaking his head at the stupendous gut it had.

"Why include stuff that makes you look bad?" asked Kid Flash then he brought his hand to his chin and traced in the air the same six chins as the statue had.

"Because it happened. And it shows that heroes have to overcome things sometimes. Besides, are you and I so important that nobody can be allowed to laugh at us?"

"No. I guess not," said Kid Flash, staring now at the thousand pound Flash statue's saggy mud slide of a chest. He touched his own tightpectoral muscle.

"Besides, Dexter says the little kids love it."

Kid Flash sighed, almost in relief that that hadn't happened to his body then zipped to join Flash on the other side of the rail.

"What else is new?" he asked.

"C'mere," said Flash and he shepherded his protege, at a walking pace, to the end of one hallway where a wall was adorned with signs announcing:

COMING IN 2007

FLASH IMAX

SEE WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE!

"Oh my god! Really?" Kid Flash blurted.

"Yup. Dexter's already lined up the financing and bids are coming in for the work to make the theater. We think we've got cameras that'll be fast enough to do a reasonable job and we've been talking to some film world people about how to do it. We're gonna show what it looks like to run across water and go along the highways at the speed of sound when everyone else is going 75, Flash made cyclones, all kinds of stuff. I could use a little help, though."

"Anything!"

"They just want to film you running some and have you run alongside and film me running some, too. The idea is to give kids, and adults too I guess, a bit of a feel for what it's like for us. They're gonna run the film at all kinds of speed, from normal, where you and I are just blurs, to slowed down where individual strides can be discerned and back and forth and try to give people a sense of what it's like for you and me."

"Anything I can do to help, just tell me when and where to be."

"Thanks."

They walked on with Kid Flash talking about what a great idea the Flash Imax was. They passed a display on which a couple items had fallen off. Flash stepped in and tried to fix a couple recalcitrant placards. While he did, Kid Flash wandered across the hall. The display there happened to be therogue's gallery display on Professor Zoom. He could almost feel his own spirits drop. He stared transfixed. Then his eyes went back and forth at super speed from the display to a reflecting glass surface right next to him. Zoom's face. His. Zoom's face. His. Zoom's. His.

Damn.

Almost a year since he'd seen him and the resemblance to his biological father was much more obvious now. Their blue eyes. Their cheekbones. He didn't look exactly like him but the familial connection was clear. They were so similar. Wally'd never been so grateful for his unusual orange hair. He sighed. Their physiques were the same, too. Zoom had a smaller waist and more narrow hips than even track star looking Flash, longer legs and a more powerful butt.

"Just like me," muttered Kid Flash. "Wally Thawne."

A red gloved hand came down softly on his shoulder.

"You're Wally Allen. I've got the paper work to prove it."

Kid Flash smiled and nodded. "I know."

"Come on," said Flash. "Let's get out of here and let Dexter close up." He patted his protege's head and as soon as they were out of sight of the Professor Zoom display, Kid Flash's mood improved.

They went back to the Allen home and talked excitedly for a few hours about what the Flash Imax film should include, what sights would be most appealing to an audience, what they didn't think the average person understood about traveling at super speed. And they were still talking. Wally was going on about how they should show the effect of traveling like that on sound, how you couldn't hear things, how the doppler effect made sounds totally weird. He was still going strong, when Flash told him to go to bed.

Wally looked at the clock. "It's only 11!"

"Wally. You're a teenage boy. You need more sleep, not less."

"But, Dad! Come on! This is so much fun!"

"It'll be fun tomorrow. You've got two big exams the day after that and you're going to get two big, refreshing nights of sleep, Wally. Do you get as much sleep as you should in Titans Tower with Jinx there?

Wally looked away. "Um . . . sleep?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Go on up and get ready for bed. I'll be up in a few minutes."

"Dad!"

"Wally. Go upstairs."

Wally sighed.

Wally rolled his eyes.

Wally sighed again.

Wally looked his father in the eyes hoping for some relief or change of heart.

Wally started for the stairs. From the top of the stairs, he looked down and could see his father tidying up at normal speed.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaad to have a real dad. Just haaaaaaaaaaaaaaad to have a real dad. Totally cut loose wasn't good enough. Nooooooooo! Just haaaaaaaaaaaaaad to have a real dad. Sigh. He shook his head and headed to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Barry Allen went up the stairs and knocked at the entrance to his son's room.

"Coooome in,"said Wally glumly.

His dad chuckled as he stepped inside and saw Wally glare at him from over the covers.

"Is it as bad as that look you're giving me?" asked his father as he sat down on the side of the bed.

Wally made his expression even worse.

"You need to sleep Wally! Teenagers need more sleep not less and I bet you haven't been getting nearly enough. I bet you yawn all the time during the day."

Wally couldn't look him in the eye. "Well . . ."

"Uh huh. You shower and brush your teeth?"

Wally nodded and saw the clock out of the corner of his eye. "Look at that, Dad! Eleven oh three. God! And there's so much to talk about, that Imax thing for the museum and everything. It-"

A hand came down on his shoulder. "It'll wait, Wally. I made notes of all the stuff we said. We can pick it up tomorrow." With that, his dad turned out the light and patted Wally's head softly. "G'night."

"Maybe I'll sneak down and add some notes to the ones you took," said Wally softly with a slight smile.

"You're gonna sneak past me?" chuckled his dad from the side of the bed. "I'm the only person you can't sneak past."

"Come on, Dad!"

"Wally. It's my job to protect you, sometimes from yourself."

Wally sighed and closed his eyes, rolled onto his right side and hugged the extra pillow to his chest. His father got up from the bed. After several seconds, Wally opened one eye at super speed to see if his dad was still in the room.

"I saw that."

Several more seconds passed. He tried again.

"I saw that one, too."

"Dad!"

"Go to sleep Wally. I'll see you in the morning."

With one last sigh of resignation, the fastest teen alive let himself fall quickly into slumber under the protective watch of his dad, the fastest man alive.


	6. Speedsters two

Wally woke up from a gentle shake of his shoulder.

"Wally."

Another gentle shake and his eyes opened briefly only to shut from a rising sun shining right in them.

"Wally?"

Wally'd been told by his pal Dick Grayson that he should practice immediate status assesment upon waking, that he should instantaneously and completely assess his safety upon waking every single time for the rest of his life. Immediate status assessment! Wally'd told his pal, known to the world as Robin, that he would do that; that it was a good idea. Who knows who might attack them in even the seemingly safest locations?

Wally pushed the covers away and lolled comfortably atop the warm bed enjoying the hazy feeling of teetering on the edge of consciousness. Next time for sure, Dick. Starting next time . . .

"Wally! Don't lie around like that!" He felt the covers being thrown back over him and slowly placed the voice. Dad. His dad, his adopted father, The Flash. Wally stretched and slowly opened his eyes. There was Dad in a suit dressed for work.

"I've gotta go, Wally."

"But you saidyou were taking today off. You said you were gonna use a personal day," said Wally a little hurt.

"I was. But I can't. I got a call. Keller's sick and I'm the only other one who can coordinate forensics on a certain case. I'm sorry Wally," he said bending over to hug him about the shoulders. "If there was any way out of it, I'd take it. Just take care of yourself. Remember to protect your identity and I'll call at lunch time. Maybe I'll be able to get out early and we'll go somewhere then see a ballgame too. Okay?"

Wally nodded and Flash left. Wally sighed as he heard the sound of his dad, the fastest man alive, driving away in his mid priced sedan.

He didn't like it but he consoled himself with the obvious regret in his dad's voice and on his face. He really wanted to spend the day with me. He just couldn't. Sigh. Wally lazed around in bed a while longer then went downstairs and made some breakfast. He ate 6 bowls of cereal and puttered around the Allen house for a while in his trim boxer shorts.

He was still trying to decide what to do with his morning and perhaps afternoon when he found himself in front of Aunt Iris's desk. It was like a time capsule. Everything on it had been left exactly as it was the day she was killed.

A few months back he'd once put a bag down on the desk, at the edge of the living room. Barry Allen super sped to the spot in his suit and tie and yanked it off the desk.

"What're you doing!"

"I-I was just . . ."

His dad pushed him back a step. Wally was stunned.

"Nothing goes on that desk!" snapped Barry Allen. "Understand? Nothing! She worked there. She poured out her heart and soul to write the things she wrote there. She gave everything to the world from right there! That desk stays the way it is! Got it?"

Wally gulped. "I'm-I'm sorry," The tears in his eyes and shock on his face snapped Barry Allen out of his emotional reaction. He hugged Wally to him repeating, "I'm sorry!" over and over and Wally felt his adopted father's tears on top of his head. "I'm sorry, Wally. I'm sorry. I never want to hurt you. You know that. I never want to hurt you. I love you Wally. She loved you. She loved you so much. Just-just . . . please. Give me the-the desk. I-I can't have everything move on from her. Something has to-to not move on. Everything can't move on. Then she's . . . forgotten. Just give me the desk."

Wally nodded against his Dad's shoulder. "Okay," he whispered and hugged him with all his might.

So, he almost jumped back from the desk when he found his fingers on the blotter. He stepped forward warily as a normal person would if there were hissing snakes on it. He inspected with great curiosity the tremendous variety of items stuffed into and onto that desk. Anything he picked up he put back in exactly the same postion, not close to the same spot but exactly the same position.

There was a coffee stained reverse phone book for San Diego suburbs. There was a dog eared book listing lawyers in the Dallas Fort Worth area. There were computer printouts of tax listings of properties in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with all sorts of names and numbers circled and annotations made in the margins of the sheets. There was a yellowed set of pages listing Commerce Department figures in the Clinton administration. One drawer was full to the point of bursting with bank statements all in the same odd name desperately in need of vowels. Another had all sorts of documents relating to a something or other Partners Ltd. There were all sorts of thinner file folders and every kind of paper document, from innocuous coupons to copies of wills and deeds. In the center of it all was her blotter, a large 24 inch by 24 inch calendar sheet with leather at the edges. Wally'd seen Aunt Iris at her desk. Even at the end of the year, the January blotter sheet was still on top. She might note her November appointments on the November sheet but she kept writing on the top sheet, the January sheet all year long. She didn't want to throw any of them away. She made notes on that January sheet, doodled on it, wrote phone messages, whatever she needed to do, all year long. So, the January sheet of the blotter calendar was a rich mosaic of writing in various ink colores but seemingly little white.

He scanned it. He read every word, at super speed, turning his head this way and that, dozens of times in a couple seconds. He wasn't looking for anything in particular. He was just curious. Aunt Iris, the investigative journalist. What sort of notes would an ace reporter like her be making. He realized that she must have had a huge knowledge of how to investigate crimes and corruption that he didn't have. She was a natural at it. On top of some of the files were paperback detective novels. When she had to have a break from doggedly following an investigation, she would relax by reading how someone else doggedly followed an investigation. And she always figured them out early.

He read every word again. Nothing that unusual there, some names and a lot of phone numbers, also some other strings of letters and digits that could've been any number of things. Some seemed to be credit card numbers, 16 number sets. Others were combinations of letters and digits. Who knows what those were? And there were other groups of letters, abbreviations of all sorts. Who but Aunt Iris could identify any of them? For fun, he tried but got nowhere with any of 'em till . .

4TTFHPB

His expression brightened. Wait a minute! TTFHPB. He smirked. That's me! TTFHPB is me. The "Teen Titans' Fire Haired Pretty Boy". One of the Jump City papers had called him that. Aunt Iris had read it about a month before she was . . .

It had appeared in the gossip section of the paper and Aunt Iris had alerted him to it with a laugh. "So that's all you are now, Kid, huh? Just a pretty boy, huh?" she'd said before going into her signature laugh. What a great laugh.

Wally had hated that the paper would call him that, even in a gossip column, but he loved that Aunt Iris felt free to jab him with it. It meant that she knew he was strong. She didn't have to protect him. She could have fun with him and needle him now and then. It was a sign of the success of her effort to save him from his parents' neglect. He smiled recalling her jabs.

Okay, so 4TTFHPB is something for me. But, what? There was no other writing next to those letters that seemed to go with it. A credit card number written diagonally off the "B" didn't seem to be connected. And on top of those letters was an order from a chinese restaurant. He couldn't remember getting lemon chicken or beef broccoli as a gift from Aunt Iris. Wally was stumped for a moment. Then he started to look at the blotter in another way, focusing not just on the letters but the ink. Of the nearly one hundred notes of some sort on the top sheet of the blotter, most were in a black ink. A few were in red, a couple in green. Quite a few were in blue, but the blue of 4TTFHPB wasn't the same as most of the notes in blue. It was slightly darker. He started scanning the half ink covered blotter, one inch by one inch squares at a time looking for the same color ink as 4TTFHPB. No.No.No.No.No.No.No.No.No.No.No. Hey! It was on top of, no, below. No, on top of. He turned on the desk lamp. There was some of that blue on top of the black there, just a bit below and to one side of the one he'd decoded. It read:

DMDMDUH.

At first, the fastest boy alive puzzled at this. What the hell did all that stand for? But then he broke off the end piece. Duh! DMDM . . . DUH. As in, of course, DMDM. But what's DMDM. He turned that one around and around in his head for several minutes till finally a possibility occurred to him. His eyes went wide.

"Oh my god!" he whispered. "If it's . . . oh, holy shit! If it is, maybe it'll help her . . .that's what people do when they . . . . It is! They . . . "

Wally stepped back and took a deep breath. Calm down idiot! You've got an idea with nothing connecting it to any action taken or any useful info. Gotta think! Gotta think! What would Aunt Iris do if she was trying to track that down?

He scanned the desk, all the papers and files and printouts and books. He hoped that something would jump out as a connection. But there was nothing. He puzzled a minute more. What've I got? What've I got to tease out something else, some more info?

I've got a slightly different color ink. That separates out most of the other writing as probably irrelevant. And she only called me Fire Haired Pretty Boy that last month, in September. So that separates out more stuff.

"Sorry Dad," he said softly then started to slowly tug loose the edges of the 12 blotter sheets.

DING DONG!

Wally nearly hit his head on the ceiling jumping in the air at the sound of the doorbell.

"God damn!" he gasped at the uncannily bad timing.

DING DONG!

"Coming!" Wally shouted. He looked around for something to wear, to pull over his short length boxers. Oh, to hell with it. He made sure he hadn't fallen out then just opened the door. The UPS guy won't care.

But it wasn't the UPS guy. It was the Fed Ex woman.

"Sign for a uh package for Barry Allen?"

"Sure, that's my dad," said Wally. He took the clipboard from her and quickly did a perfect cursive Wallace Allen. He held the clipboard out to give it back to her. The slightly plump woman didn't take it for a second while she stared at him.

"How-how'd you get like that?" she asked the astoundingly well conditioned fastest teen alive, pointing with one hand.

"I'm a runner."

"How much do you run?" she asked, incredulously, as she handed him a rectangular box and still stared at a body with every muscle group visible, not pumped up comically but toned to perfection and made conspicuous by an apparent complete lack of fat..

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, ma'am. Sorry, gotta go."

With that, he gently closed the door and went back to the blotter.

He pulled up the edge of one page after another just enough to see which month it was. He figured August and September were the ones he wanted to see, to check for more of that same slightly odd shade of blue ink. He lifted the blotter pages just enough to get a peek at the August page and not move the paperback copies of a couple detective novels. He moved to one side to let the light in. There were some notes about appointments and some phone numbers on the August sheet but none were in that blue. He tried the September sheet. Bingo. There was a phone number on the September 2nd square in that same blue. Wally repeated it to himself 602 555 8400. 602 555 8400. He checked to make sure there were no other notes in that ink on the September sheet. He didn't see any.

As carefully as he could, he put the sheets back down and made sure the blotter and all the desk contents were back exactly as they had been. He stepped back from the desk and sighed. How should I play this, he wondered? Does the person who'll pick up the phone know that Aunt Iris is dead? He must. Anyone she was dealing with must know. But is this someone she was dealing with? Is this the number of someone who helped her or someone else? The possibilities were only multiplying in his head. He decided to just give it a shot.

He picked up the phone on the wall in the kitchen and dialed 1 602 555 8400. After a couple lame rings, a man picked up.

"Yeah. Archer here."

"Um, this is, this is a-a friend of Iris Allen's," Wally began, affecting a slightly deeper voice. "I-I-"

"How strong is this friendship? Iris Allen is dead, pal."

"I know. I'm family. I-I was just wondering if you might have some information for her. Some information about DM?"

"Jeez. That one! It's been months. That first guy just said 'Keep it'. I thought the poor guy was gonna crack on the phone. That was last October. So, you see, I don't exactly have that information off the top of my head."

"Well, do you have it?"

"Sure. I've got it. But not with me. At my office."

"Where's your office? When'll you be there?"

The man gave an address of a small building just within the Phoenix city limits.

"That's perfect. Her-her nephew is IN Phoenix. I'll call him. Can he meet you there in, say, a half hour?"

"Half hour? Sure. How will I know him?"

"Oh, you can't miss him. She used to call him the fire haired pretty boy."

He debated it. He could have sprinted to Phoenix, beaten the guy to his office, gone through his files, found the right one and simply taken it. Would anyone have been hurt? Would there have been any wrong in that? It was information owed to Iris West, owed to the Allens now. He was an Allen.

But he couldn't. He waited 28 minutes then pulled on his Kid Flash suit and carried a set of his Jump City Academy clothes under his arm and sped to a nice shadowy spot in a parking garage near that address. He stored his Kid Flash suit in his special ring and pulled on his prep schoolboy clothes. He walked to the address a block away and a minute later was knocking on the door of a suite 302, a room with no identification as to the occupant.

"Come in!"

Wally moved quietly into the room. "You're Archer? I'm Wally Allen. My cousin Dick said that you have a file or something that my Aunt Iris paid you to get."

The man looked him in the eyes. He glanced up at his orange hair. He nodded slightly. Yup. The name fits. Just the same, he held out one hand and demanded, "Show me some ID kid." in a Chicago accent.

Wally handed him his Jump City Academy ID and scoped out the man and his surroundings. Some kind of detective, huh? Large office with a big window but only one desk. Lots of file cabinets, a coffee maker and a microwave and a few things for each. The desk was cluttered and the man was in his early 50's, tallish with just a bit too much weight, white shirt and a light gray suit. He wasn't smoking a cigar then but the room stank with proof that he had. Archerhanded the ID back to Wally and went to a filing cabinet.

"Real sorry about your Aunt. She was a great broad, pardon my language, if that offends you."

"I'm fine. She was great."

"I worked a few things for her and she was a real pro. Always knew what to ask for, always had the big picture in mind. There's guys . . . I'm not one of 'em, mind you, but there's guys that'll happily go down a blind alley for you and make you pay 'em till you wise up and send 'em in the right direction even though they know it's a blind alley. Iris West always sent ya in the right direction. Great instinct for how guys would try to cover their tracks and where there might be a trail of slime to catch 'em. A lotta yer reporters are so lefty they don't want to investigate government officials, specially if their parties callin' the shots. Iris West went after all of 'em. She was something."

The man pulled a certain file from the cabinet with an "Ahh!", and turned to Wally.

"You know what this is about, kid?"

"A guy named Murphy."

"Right. A guy named Murphy. And what's it to you?"

Wally explained well enough to be handed the file.He left out a few parts.

A half hour later, orange haired Wally Allen jogged up to his adopted father in the parking lot outside the Keystone City Police headquarters. Barry Allen was just getting back from examining a crime scene.

"Dad! Dad! Can I talk to you alone for a minute? Please!" he called out and Barry Allen's three co-workers stepped aside so that the orange haired prep schoolboy could talk to his dad. Two minutes later, the boy jogged off around the corner of the building and they moved back toward him.

"What was all that about?" asked an assistant.

"Girlfriend trouble."

Knowing nods and winks went around the group.

An hour later at the Keystone City Speedway garage, Don Morgan looked under the hood of his team's backup car with a feeling of satisfaction. Even the backup was running almost just right. He'd gotten a late start at the business. He'd been late at getting a lot of things right, it seemed. But almost everything was turning out pretty well now. Life was humming along with every cylinder firing just right, just like the backup car. Assistant crew chief now, at 37. Maybe a full crew chief in a few more years with a middle of the road team, maybe one a bit down on its luck . . . at least till he got there. Who can tell what might come after that? Things were going his way. Kinda ironic, considering.

He set about cleaning up a bit. The owner'd flip if he saw all this clutter. Neat enough to eat off of . Yeah yeah yeah. He shelved one tool tray and for a second thought his eyes were playing tricks on him as he looked out into the bright sunshine of the track.

Then, for a second he just stared. One of them. It was one of them. What had once been a constant fear had so faded into the background of his thoughts that he just stared, unable to conjure up the recollection of how dangerous this situation was. It was one of them, the kind that his connection to her would bring. Damn!

For a split second, he stood perplexed as a blur of red and yellow headed right for him. Suddenly,it materialized into an almost impossibly athletic looking slender teen a couple inches shorter than him and wearing a skin tight red and yellow suit. Definitely one of them.

Shit.

"Are you Don Morgan?"

The man didn't answer. He could barely breathe. But then, slowly, his mind thawed and he realized which one this was. Him!

"I said, are you Don Morgan?"

"Least it was one of the good ones."

"Huh?"

"I mean, yeah. I'm Don Morgan."

"And you know who I am?"

"Kid Flash, right?"

Kid Flash nodded. "You know why I'm here, don't you?"

The man sighed heavily. "I can guess."

"Your name used to be Daniel Murphy, didn't it?"

Another sigh as he stepped away from the rack of tools.

"Yeah."

"Well!" Kid Flash half shouted.

"Well, what do you want from me? I know why you're here. I've seen all the stuff in the magazines and papers about the two of you. I had to."

"You had to?"

For a moment, Don Morgan/Daniel Murphy wondered if it really was so lucky that this particular good one had been the one to find him. The boy was angry.

"Yes," he pleaded. "I had to leave her and her mother. Her mother left too, a little later. It was killing both of us. She's got it under control now, doesn't she? Well, she didn't then. She didn't. Everything went wrong. Everything went bad. And I mean everything. Bad luck just oozed out of her. A-a guy couldn't deal with that. I tried to. I sure as hell tried. I wasn't some guy who goes out for a pack of smokes and just kept driving. I stuck with it for 6 years of everything falling apart and gettin' sicker and sicker. I never hurt her. I never hurt her mother. I . . "

The man's eyes welled up into tears and he hid them behind one hand, his fingers pinching at both sides of his nose.

"I loved her," he pleaded for absolution. "I did! Sometimes . . . sometimes the situation's just impossible. But a superhero type wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Kid Flash advanced a couple steps closer. "My father abandoned me before I was even born. He never saw me till last year. I know how fricking hard it is not having someone looking after you like there's supposed to be. That's why I hope you'll see her again. It'd be good for her."

The man sighed and shook his head. "You-you have any idea how tough that'd be for me? I-I've got a whole 'nother family now, a girl who didn't get a curse and pink hair and eyes and turn villain for a while and everything. I-"

Kid Flash advanced. "Maybe she wouldn't have turned villain if she'd had parents around."

The man shook his head. "You got this all wrong. I withstood all I could. All I could," he nearly shouted. "I loved that little girl. It just couldn't work. You understand?"

"You said you love her!"

The man sniffed and then straightened up. "I did . . I . . . do."

"Then do what's good for her! Do what you think is best for her! If you really love her then you have to do what's good for her even if it's hard for you. And, yeah, she's got it under control now."

The man sighed and nodded repeatedly. "Allright, allright. I'll-"

"No! Not just allright allright. I won't make you do anything. I don't do that. That's . . . I don't coerce people. I don't force things on people. But you've gotta resolve to do this, not just when I'm here facing you but for real."

The man took a long slow breath and finally gave an emphatic nod. "For real," he said softly and watched the teen superhero lean back in a more relaxed pose against the next car.

"I-I always expected something to happen some day. I mean. I changed my name but the girl was running with a really tough crowd, kinda crowd that might kill a relative or hold 'im hostage without losin' a lick of sleep."

Kid Flash nodded. "Some of the other side is like that. Jinx didn't belong with them."

"I guess you're the one I owe thanks to, aren't you? That's what the papers and magazines said. Kid Flash brought her over to the hero side."

"I helped her find her way off that team but she's not with those people because she didn't belong there and didn't want to be there, not cuz some speedster liked her."

"You really care for her?"

Kid Flash nodded solemnly. "All the way."

"And somebody . . . abandoned you? You?" he added looking around the side of the teen speedster in his skintight red bottomed yellow topped suit.

Kid Flash sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's . . it's really complicated."

"If I'm going to be the father in law, I should know something about the boy, shouldn't I?"

"Hey! You're nothing right now. You're not the father in law. Not yet. You're a guy who should've been there for her when she was young to give her strength whenever she needed it, but who wasn't. You're nothing until she accepts you back."

"Look. I said it before. I tried all I could. I felt terrible about it. But, okay. I guess that's the way it's gotta be."

"It is. If she lets you back in her life, we'll talk at some point. Till then, you just keep reading those newspapers and magazines. And here," said Kid Flash pulling off one red glove and then handing the man a plane ticket. "Thursday."

"Thursday! How 'bout some advance notice?"

"Did you give a six year old girl any advance notice?"

The man sighed. "Thursday . . . . . Your not gonna fly with me in that getup, are you? I mean, could that be any tighter?"

Kid Flash sighed in exasperation. "Not much. And I wear this . . getup everywhere, but, I won't fly with you. I can run from here to Jump City in a few seconds without working too hard. I'll meet you at the airport . . . with her."

Don Morgan, nee Dan Murphy nodded. Kid Flash speed back to his dad's house at top speed.

He was so happy he could barely keep still. Maybe this'd help Jinx get over those not quite nightmares she was having. She'd get to see "Papa" again. She'd get to talk to him. He'd have to be there, of course, to make sure things stayed civil, in case it was anger powering those near nightmares and not longing. But he brushed off the worry. She'd be fine. She didn't fly off the handle much any more. Half the time she was doing it for show or a gag, anyway.

Oh boy!

He could barely contain his excitement. Helping her not because I'm a Flash, he patted his butt with one gloved hand, but because I was smart and figured something out. He had to force slow breaths to contain his glee.

When his dad, police scientist Barry Allen, got home, Wally told him every little detail. He soaked in his dad's pride in him. He thought of calling Jinx now or sprinting to Jump City to tell her but wanted to surprise her in person and his dad had already laid it out that this evening wouldn't be filled with super speeding unless a call came in that had to be answered. He took Wally out to an expensive restaurant to celebrate his success as a sort of detective then they spent a few hours of Flash grilling him about his biochemistry and calculus classes in preparation for his exams. Just after 11, to another reaction of disbelief, Flash made him go to bed. Reluctantly, Kid Flash complied. Behind his just shut eyes he was seeing Jinx's smile when he told her. Flash was surprised Wally could sleep with such a big smile on his face. But he did.


	7. Exams and oratory

Wally Allen was up early the next day thanks to his dad. But he was quickly past yawns and stretching. It was a big day. He had to make his way back to Jump City and take his final exams in biochemistry and calculus along with his pal Dick Grayson.

His adopted dad, better known to the world as the Flash quizzed Wally as he showered and got dressed, shouting questions to be heard over the spray and on the other side of the door.

"And what's the derivative of that, Wally? . . . And what kinds of proteins do that?" etc

When Wally was dressed in his Jump City Academy uniform of blazer, white shirt, tie and chinos, he got in the car with his dad and they pretended to be driving to the airport. Barry Allen just needed to get far enough away so that it would look good to the neighbors. Then, he pulled behind a strip mall and Wally changed out of his JCA clothes and into his Kid Flash uniform. His gave him a hug and wished him well and Kid Flash was off.

With his books and folded JCA clothes under his arm he sprinted off for Jump City. Just over a minute later he was sprinting across the choppy water of the bay to the island on which Titans Tower was located. A quick check in at the door, "Kid Flash!" spoken into the voice recognition machine, an eye held open for the retinal scanner and a palm flat upon the hand reader, and he was in. He closed the door behind himself and sprinted up the stairs. He grumbled to himself that he should just vibrate through the glass into the building, but Robin was made a point of saying that he should know where the other Titans are. His grumble turned to a smirk as he reached the 13th floor and everyone's quarters when he remembered that Gar said Jinx had reamed Robin out for not knowing where he was that time he was fighting that fire.

He vibrated through the wall and into his room. As he once explained to Jinx, this wasn't just him flexing his Flash abilities it was also considerate to the others, Raven in the room on one side of him and Beast Boy two rooms down with an empty one in between. He didn't open and shut a door and have it creak or accidentally slam and bother them. "We Flashes are super courteous, too," he'd laughed.

He didn't laugh now. He had an almost solemn smile of satisfaction. There was Jinx, all of her, sprawled across the covers of his bed. He stood there and took in the sight. He sighed. Her light gray skin looked so fantastic in half light like this. She stirred slightly and made her hip more visible. His eyes were iron filings drawn to a magnet. So full and round for that little waist and still tight as a drum. His breathing pattern changed unconsciously. A minute later she rolled slowly onto her back and his eyes were taken elsewhere.

Perfect. They're perfect. So ridiculous that she thought they're too small. They're perfect. He stepped closer, again with no thought to do so, simply an instinctive move. He could almost look down into that wonderful face now. He shook his head. How did everyone not find her beautiful? How did someone like Garth not feel anything at all for her? How can that be? He exhaled slowly. Oh well. Good for me.

He watched her another minute. He loved that face. It was a face of intelligence. The flavor of the thought might be mischievous or philosophical or calculating. But it showed that the wheels were always turning. So much strength in that face. Not gonna take any shit from anyone. Jesus, those stray moments here and there, of her sighing and relaxing, letting me hold her and protect her. Those are like rocket fuel, because of everything that's in that face.

He sighed and when she stirred a little more and yawned he stepped forward and ran his fingers through her pink hair.

"Good morning, Virginia," he whispered.

"Good morning, Wallace," she smiled with her eyes still closed. She reached out and put a hand to his hip and squeezed. She groaned.

"Kid Flash suit. Yecchh." And then she laughed as she tugged at it. "How do you ever get this thing off? It's like rubber glued to your skin," she smiled.

Off.

He climbed into bed as the sun started to hit the Tower, covering her with kisses.

An hour later, as two sets of gasping breaths returned to normal, he leaned down and rubbed the end of his nose on hers, as they both grinned with delight.

"My . . . Virginia!" he whispered.

"My Wallace!" she whispered then bent her head back and let out a soft laugh.

He got up and made his way to the bathroom, getting the usual pat on the butt as he left. He took care of things and strode back into his room before nimbly lying down on his side behind her. He pulled her tight to his chest and kissed the back of her tender neck. She turned to look up and out the window and he could see a portion of her fascinated expression.

"Look at that sky!" she whispered in a tone that matched. "That's a sky of possibilities."

He breathed in the scent of her and looked out the window of his quarters. An early morning sky of blues and red was framed by extradaordinary low cirrus clouds. When had he last seen clouds like that? That was his favorite kind. The sky almost seemed more blue with that adornment. He watched with one eye and slowly placed kiss after soft kiss just below her hair. She reached back with one hand and casually tugged at his orange hair.

"Getting ready for school just like all the other schoolboys," she chuckled.

"Ha! They're still in their dorms at the academy . . . the chumps. And I've got my arms around you."

Jinx grinned and slid over onto her back to more easily talk to him. "This is the big day, right?"

"Mmmm hmmm."

"What's your first exam about this morning . . . schoolboy?" she chuckled with mock derision.

Kid Flash zipped to crouch over her. "Well, you see, there are disk and shell methods of determining the volumes of solids," he explained softly with a smile.

"What the hell's that?"

"Well," he said bending forward and rubbing his thick tangle of orange hair against her chin.

"That tickles!"

"How 'bout this?" he said and moved so his hair was a bit below her chin.

"Oh!" she giggled. "What happened to no super speed?"

He looked her in the eye. "I thought tongue didn't count," he said before continuing his demonstration. "Anyway, let's say you have a function that looks like a cone on top of a hemisphere."

"Let's just say," she laughed softly running one hand through orange hair.

"Probably the representation of beautiful X squared plus luscious."

"Luscious?"

"A common mathematical term."

She giggled.

"You take the integral of the function about some bounding limits on the X axis," he said, tracing a line along one of her ribs and that's the shell method. But you can do the same thing just as well taking an integral of a function about the Y axis. For instance, take this identical function," he said moving a little to the side.

"Again with the super speed cheating!" she mock protested.

He paid no attention but applied himself to the calculus at hand.

"Mmmmm,"she moaned softly then chuckled.

"The lesson is going to stick in my head so much better now," he laughed and traced one finger vertically along her skin. "Now, the disk is a function about this Y axis."

She gasped. She also reached out and grasped him with one pale hand.

"And how would you determine the volume of this solid?" she smirked, enjoying the surprised look on his face. " . . . Hmmm. It seems to change, doesn't it?" she added with a laugh.

"Ah . . ah . . yes, it . . . does. I . . . don't have much control of that."

"Like vibrating?"

"That's . . ah . . ah . . please! Loosen your grip! That's different. That's a Flash ability. No guy can control whether or not . . "

"Come on! Come on!" she grinned at him still crouched over her. "You too! Don't just turn me into math. You too!"

"Alright . . that's . . ah . . that's a cylinder described by two very similar functions making nearly parallel parabolic arcs. It . . "

She laughed and let go. "I was kidding. Only a guy would have such a mania for shapes as to have to turn them into math," she said but undercut her argument by immediately giving in to her fixation with rubbing his rear.

"Only a guy?" he smiled looking into her eyes.

She smiled back. "To me, you're poetry or art . . . but not math for gods' sakes!"

"Hey! I read you Rilke!" he protested.

Her expression slowly softened. "You did. And it was really sweet. You surprise me sometimes, fire haired pretty boy," she said and went from tenderness to laughter as she sort of spit the term out at him.

"Oh!" he sprang to his feet.

"Oh?"

"That reminds me. I have another surprise for you."

"Another surprise? What is it this time?"

"Uh uh. I've gotta get going to class. I'll tell you when I get back."

"ooooooooo speedster cliffhanger!" she laughed. "What a tease!" she added but reached out to pat the seat of his pants before he left.

Her expression turned serious. "Hey. Fucking kill these exams, Wally."

He nodded and was off.

Out in the hall, there was no sign of Robin. "Jeez, not again," he muttered. He was just about to knock on the door when Dick Grayson suddenly emerged in his Jump City Academy clothes and neatly parted hair.

He shot a glance at Wally Allen.

"Okay, okay! You're a bad boy. There. Now let's go. Go over proteins!"

While the two teen heroes walked briskly to the T-Car and traveled in to Jump City Academy they took turns reciting information they were expected to know for their exams and quizzing each other. They barked principles and lists and methods to work problems rapid fire the whole way, right into the classroom.

Wally finished a couple minutes early, a little frazzled at the tremendous effort but feeling confident and proud. He'd aced it. He knew he'd aced it. He glanced over to his left. Dick Grayson writing feverishly. Then he looked up, his tongue out one side of his mouth, deep in concentration. Wally looked away. He didn't want to make eye contact, didn't want to distract Dick. He glanced to his right. Janelle? Wasn't that her name? Janelle was smiling at him. Oh god.

"Hey Wally!" she whispered with a smile totally incongruous for the taking of a final exam. "Where're you gonna be after this?"

"Another exam," said Wally into the side of his fist. He decided that was a good time to get up, so he turned in his test at the front of the class and walked slowly bakc to his desk. He saw Dick glance quickly up at him, his expression a mix of elements that, to Wally's surprise, even included angry envy.

Wally waited in the hall, for Dick, but Janelle followed him.

"You've got another exam right away, Wally?"

"In an hour," he said and pulled out a book to study.

"What about after that," she asked. "You wanna get a coffee or something at the student center?"

"I-I have to fly back to Keystone City right after that. I . . . I'll see you next year?"

Thankfully, Dick emerged from the classroom walking briskly away from it and Wally got to join him and not feel any worse about seeing Janelle's stifled disappointment.

They went to their usual bench overlooking the quadrangle.

"Did you really do that well?" asked Dick.

"I think so."

"Did you get that third one? What the hell was he looking for there? That one totally messed me up for, like the next three."

"It was another version of that trick one from last week."

Dick cursed under his breath. Wally waited and waited. He'd have to ask some time.

"How'd you do?"

"B . . . maybe B plus."

"That's cool."

Dick Grayson's head snapped around to him so fast he might've been the one with super speed. Dick opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. He didn't need to. His expression said everything. It wasn't cool enough.

Their second test was more of the same. They studied frantically in between exams then trooped into their classroom. Wally methodically marched through the test. There was one question he completely didn't get at first. He left it and moved on. He finished a few minutes early and glanced around the room. A Korean boy they barely knew was also done. Wally sat back quietly and caught his breath, breathing in a feeling of satisfaction along with the air. "Fucking kill these exams, Wallace." Done, Virginia. Done. He smiled.

Two desks over, Dick was writing as fast as he could and flipping back and forth between pages of the exam. Wally quietly passed in his test and waited outside the room.

Dick was angry all the way back to the T-Car, muttering "Fuckfuckfuck!" under his breath and slammed his fist down on the hood after Wally said what he thought the answer to a certain problem had been. "Of course!" He left a dent.

"Jesus Dick. Calm down."

"I should've fucking gotten that one. I should've gotten all of 'em . . . in both tests!"

"Um, you're going seriously Batman junior on me here."

"No I'm not."

"Dick . . ."

Wally didn't say another word for the whole ride back. On City streets, in the air over the bay, parking the car in the garage. Dick vented. He called himself combinations of curses that Wally'd never even heard before. He gave himself a punch to the chest that Wally thought could've stopped the heart of a teen not as athletic as Dick Grayson. When it was all done and Dick finally finished beating himself up as they got into the elevator. Wally gave Dick a squeeze about the shoulders.

"Whether any of that's true or not, and I think it's almost all bullshit, you're my best friend. It doesn't mean shit that you got B's instead of A's on a couple tests when you were 16."

He gave him another hug and went left out of the elevators while Robin went right.

In his room, with Jinx, the mood was celebratory. All his careful tact with disappointed Dick went out the window and Wally hooted and shouted about his mastery of the realms of calculus and biochemistry. He went to get something to eat and shared his news with Cyborg, who congratulated him then made it seem a bit smaller by asking a few questions showing that he offhandedly knew more than Wally had crammed to know. Beast Boy gave him hugs and backslaps though and Wally's effervescent mood returned. He even agreed to play a video game with Beast Boy and got wiped out by his green comrade who threw his hands in the air and did a victory dance in front of Wally.

"Ha! He can press the buttons at super speed and I still beat him! I am a green god of Monkeyblaster 6! I am master of the video domain! The Earl of X-box! The Marquis of Madden. The-"

Wally zipped out of the great room back toward his quarters with Beast Boy still giving himself aristocratic titles over the land of video games. At the door to his room, Jinx was waiting.

"Wally. We have to talk," she said when he was still down the hall.

He ushered her into the room in her usual goth outfit and immediately switched from his JCA clothes to his much more comfortable Kid Flash suit.

"Talk about what?"

Jinx let out a sigh. "Ugh. I'm struggling for words and I already made this speech to you and did it perfect. Only you fell asleep on me."

"I did?"

"Well, you, uh were worn out from saving little kids from a fire. Mitigating circumstances. I'll give you that. But I said it perfect. So, I want you to know that any hem or haw or wrong word choice now can't be marked against me. Got it, speedster?"

He nodded.

She took a big breath. "Okay. Here it is . . . "

He leaned forward staring intently.

"No. This won't work. I didn't look at you last time. That made it easier. Go over there," she suggested pointing to a corner of the room. He complied.

"No, wait. Come over here and lie down on the bed with your head off one side and your feet off the other just like you were then."

Kid Flash shrugged but again complied.

"You were naked then, too . . . hmm . . . " she pondered with one finger to her lips. "Oh to hell with it. Close enough. The thing is, Wally. I feel like you're doing more than you have to. You-"

"More than I have to?"

"Shutup! You didn't say anything when I got it perfect."

"You said I fell asleep."

"Whatever! Just let me finish!"

"Sorry."

She sighed in exasperation then put her hand on his defined abs as she had the first time she made this speech.

"I feel like I'm almost under pressure to be the perfect girl because your making this huge effort to be the perfect boy. I mean, seriously. You're room is neat," she looked around. "Well, for a guy. And you do all this stuff for me, getting me breakfast and flowers on a regular basis and making all kinds of excuse for me with the others. It's all just . . . it's all just a bit more than you have to. I love you already, Wally. You don't have to be like some relationship Superman or something for me. Just back off it a little bit and let's try it like that for a while. Okay?"

"And the sex?"

She tilted her head to one side. "I didn't say anything about that."

He smiled. There was a pause of several seconds while he tried to soak it in.

"I told you. You're my first real girlfriend. I . . . I don't know. Maybe I've tried to do everything to make sure I didn't miss something that counted. I . . . ," he paused. "I can let this place be a mess."

She laughed. "Well, a bit more. Just a bit! It just doesn't seem like you, this clean."

He smiled. "Cleaning. If that isn't love, what is?"

Jinx fell over laughing then zapped him with a hex.

"So, were you gonna tell me something?"

Wally glanced nervously down from side to side. "Um, I, uh, I located your dad and he's flying here tomorrow afternoon."

"What!"

Wally explained the whole story in all its details, from absentmindedly looking at his aunt's desk blotter to giving her father the plane ticket.

"This one's okay?" he asked sheepishly.

She nodded.

"How 'bout the roses I already paid for that I'm gonna pick up tomorrow?"

"Wally!"

Before her eyes, the room seemed to fill with red and yellow blur and when the flurry of color was over a second later, the room was a complete mess. He held his arms out as if presenting it.

"There! Compensation."

Jinx shook her head and chuckled. "I'm going to my mother's I'll be back late tonight."

"You know . . . . . I could wash less often, too."

"I'm leaving!" Jinx shouted in mock anger from his door and slammed it shut.


	8. Raven makes her move

Author's note: Kind of a long chapter again. I couldn't really condense it any more. Thanks for the kind review. I'm as much a praise whore as anyone else.

"I'm leaving?" a voice softly repeated Jinx's words.

But it wasn't Jinx's voice.

And it wasn't Kid Flash's.

And the tone of this other voice was completely different. The words were spoken as a question with a rising intonation of hope.

Raven had been in the hallway on the 13th floor of Titans Tower, the level on which all the private quarters are located. She'd been around the corner, just out of sight, returning from the elevators with a mug of green tea, when Jinx had half shouted to Kid Flash, in the other direction "Wally. We have to talk." She'd stopped where she stood, not wanting to be closer. Just let it take place naturally, she'd thought. Let it take place. Please, let it happen!

She wasn't exactly a relationship expert but she knew what 'We have to talk' meant. It was one of the ultimate cliches. I'm breaking up with you. We have to talk. I'm breaking up with you.

Raven almost dropped her mug as emotions tamped down for months started to break free. She was surprised how immediate her own reaction was. With "Wally. We have to talk." she was almost instantly back where she'd been 11 months ago. She retreated to her room as soon as she heard the door to Kid Flash's quarters close. She took a gulp of tea and debated with herself. Emotions welled up powerfully. She was so unaccustomed to it, she felt almost knocked off her feet. She leaned on her black dresser. This had only happened a couple times before, first that crush on Robin that went nowhere, then Malchior, then that crush that went nowhere with Aqualad and then the slow simmer for red and yellow when he'd first joined.

Now, the simmer turned to boil. She steadied herself staring at a point on the far black wall to concentrate. Emotion, powerful emotion rooted in so many levels coursed through her. For a moment, she recalled Robin's conjecture from months and months back.

"What if it's safer to let it out more often than to keep it all bottled up?"

It'd been hard to take the suggestion seriously coming from him Mr. Obsessive with the total Slade fixation and the pathological fear of losing at anything. He's giving advice on being free about emotions? She'd stifled the urge to make a joke. But what if he was right? This was crazy, barely being able to stand.

"Fine," she said aloud. "I'm not going to fracture into parts again. But I'm going to feel this. I'm going to acknowledge all the roots of this. I'm going to reason this out. I-I'm attracted to him," she said aloud at a volume suitable for speaking to a person across the room. "I-I like him . . . his face . . . his body . . . his calves, his shoulders, the abs, the butt! Gods, the butt," she sighed feeling weird for talking about a boy's body to herself. "He's intelligent and he's intellectual and he's funny and he's-he's kind. Why shouldn't I be interested? Who else is there for me? He's already shown that sorcery doesn't bother him. And he's got a psycho father just like me".

She took a deep breath. It seemed to have worked. Openly acknowledging it had taken away some of its disruptive power.

For almost a year, it had been there. She had known it. Every time he'd given her a hug and she had been stiff. It wasn't just an aversion to affection of any kind like they all thought. She just couldn't let herself squeeze that particular body, that particular boy. Not him. So she would let him hug her about the shoulders and not return the gesture. He gave her a funny look every time. Not hurt, not angry, just slightly quizzical. No reciprocity? Really? Oh well. Maybe next time.

The issue might have been closed. But she kept letting there be next times even though she didn't hug back.

Beast Boy had been upset that she even allowed the practice to continue.

"Rae? Why do you let him hug you but you don't let me hug you?"

"It's his thing," she quickly responded. "He does that with everyone."

Beast Boy then jumped up and gave a full body hug to Robin as he entered the great room from the elevators.

"What's the matter with you, Gar!" Robin had recoiled, pushing him away.

"Dude! Can't a changeling show a little affection?"

"It just seems weird."

"Come on! You let KF hug you all the time!"

"Yeah, but that's his thing."

Raven smirked and Beast Boy stomped off. "You know, I could've started it as my thing when we first started! But did I? No! I could've said my thing was to kiss Raven, or maybe all the girls. But did I? No! I could've said . . . " The elevator doors opened and his words became inaudible.

Luckily he didn't he draw an obvious inference from my letting KF hug me but not him.

But now, despite previous abstention from emotional response, emotions were back stronger than ever.

The feeling was terrible. The uncertainty. The lack of control. Wanting so much to do things to him, with him. Wanting it no matter what. That was the problem, the no matter what and how it would mess you up. So irrational!.

But that didn't have to be the end result. She'd seen that herself. Hell, Jinx herself was the proof, wasn't she? She'd changed for the better. She'd been overcome with emotion for him. It seemed a constant presence in her life. She'd get a certain look in her eye just sitting there in the kitchen when he was way at Flash's and Raven knew what it must be. And she got that look often. Everything was some combination of love for him, for Kid Flash. And she'd only gotten more and more stable and mature as time passed. The intensity of the emotion hadn't hurt her. It'd pretty obviously done the opposite. He'd been like a springboard for her or maybe the right metaphor was an anchor, something solid that kept things in place even in storms. Whatever the right metaphor was, how could she be breaking up with him? It was crazy. What the hell was she thinking?

Raven calmed herself and even felt a whisp of optimism. That was his thing, wasn't it? Optimism? Possibilities? Hmmph. Always thought that was for complete idiots. But, maybe this time. Maybe. Doesn't seem like he's secretly a dragon, she said to herself now able to manage a smile about it. He's not so caught up in being the team leader that he makes me seem like the warm, open one. He's not . . he's not whatever Aqualad was. How the hell did that fail so miserably, or really never start? Maybe some of that was wishful thinking but, Gods, so handsome in that unitard! Those dark eyes!

His eyes aren't dark but blue and so bright. Fitting with that hair and that uniform. Everything about him was bright. Thank gods he'd turned out to be bright in the other sense too. That'd clinched it. The body was incredible, sleek sprinter to the max, but there were excellent physiques all over the place in this business. They were almost all morons or psychos. What a surprise it was to find out he was smart and not just that but, counter to everything, the butt and the suit and the hair and the whole social thing he had going on and the whole speed deal would lead anyone to believe, intellectual. He was intellectual. She smiled. Always in the Titans Tower library. He didn't even know the names of all Gar's stupid video games. He even had an evil father, too. Flash was just an adoptive father. Professor Zoom was his biological father. He had an evil psycho killer father too! We could be freakish . . . together!

She exhaled slowly and deliberately. What am I saying? Acknowledging the emotion was all well and good but she wanted to be centered again. Can't speak to him like this, all unstable excitement. She scanned her collection.

Hmmm. Which aid this time? The talisman? Mmmm, no. Ahhh, the stone tablet! She set it before her and memorized it. She went to the lotus position and closed her eyes. She concentrated, gathering her force and commanding, mastering it till it almost felt like it had a texture, a physical feel. She gathered it and then felt the dimensional portal opening.

An hour later, Raven slowly opened her eyes. She was levitating in the lotus position in the near black of her room. The meditation had been almost perfect. She felt, simultaneously, as though air itself could pass right through her body and as though she was more powerful than ever. Those rune inscriptions had been a surprisingly worthwhile aid to opening the multidimensional portal.

She slowly descended to the figure carved into the deep shag black carpet of her room and looked around it. Such a feeling of comfort in these prosaic furnishings. A bed, a few tables and chairs and all my books. Dog eared and yellowed and sometimes tattered, sometimes a bound series of writings on parchment, they were a source of immense power if appreciated and used with wisdom. They might have been of great use to others. But, she knew that, like every item in the room, they were saturated with her power. A certain incantation or a powerful enough ignition of a simple chemical nature might cause a fireball like an oil well exploding. It was almost impossible to take the energy out of those things now. Her power didn't respect simple boundaries of space. It seeped through everything from all the dimensions she traveled as she returned to this one. It was like the wake of a wave from a ship returning to dock, her power lapping across everything in the room as she returned from her meditative travels. Within those four walls, she could read minds clearly and marshall forces of immense power with little effort.

The others thought it was insecurity or shyness that made her want to keep them out of her room. She let them think that. Better than for them to know what a hazard there was just down the hall from them. And, it was a hazard that, if anything, was growing. As she became more powerful, the energy that washed over her books and bed and nightstand and things more and more saturated them. She could see it even though the others couldn't perceive it. Except for him.

How was I to know? She sighed thinking of it. She had brought her book of celtic incantations with her to the kitchen one night as she got herself a nice cup of tea. She was reading the curses brought down on Jutes and Angles when he happened by, as always, in search of more food, away from . . her, for the moment. He remarked, in shock, that the book had a fiery glow. She adjusted her eyes to see the energy from the dimension she'd last traveled. It was true. It was a fiery glow. How the hell could he see it? She remembered placating him with a few words of gibberish about mystical powers. He frowned skeptically and asked if she was sure everything was okay. Upon her nodding, he chirped a quick "good", gave her a hug and then took off with an armload of food.

She'd worried that he would go in her room and had used a refusal to let Beast Boy in there as a segue to making KF promise not to go in there either. He quickly promised. But he often looked askance at her, seeming to question all that he'd been told by the others. Raven can't be social. Raven hates emotions. Raven's insecure. The thought of these false maxims made her almost angry. The few times I explain anything of my powers to them I emphasize that I travel other dimensions by being one with that plane of existence. I emphasize the unity of all things but they think I'm constantly denying my body! They think I constantly deny my instinctive sentiments in response to things! Hello! Necessary safety steps while I gain mastery of my powers, not hatred for things that are simply part of life.

She shook her head again, and let the anger dissipate like a wisp of smoke in a strong breeze.

Emotions are poor guides to action, not to be accepted as judges or pilots when reason is available. I don't let mine rule me because I'm too powerful to allow that. But, I have every emotion they do, including lust and love.

She sighed and thought of her first experience of romantic desire.

Robin.

She sighed again.

That slightly odd but so handsome face. The small nose but good jaw and cheekbones. The black hair. That tight little butt. Sigh. Stupid cape! Stupid stupid cape! The commanding, mature air he had about him! Gods! All the times I . . .

If only once it'd been with him.

She sighed. It was just as well that he'd been so unable to be minimally social with anyone. The idea of a-a relationship with him, then! Impossible. No wonder Robin hated him when they first met. Unable to be social meet completely social. Starfire just got lucky in predicting that they'd get along well. Didn't see that coming. Just as well I never kissed those lips. His aura and Starfire's are so well suited. Sigh. Still, that little butt!

But compared to the new guy! What great and terrible fortune at the same time! A boy shaped like that whether it was from being the son of someone from the 29th century or all the impossible sprinting around, a boy like THAT in a suit like that! Except, he meets . . . her. Annnnnnnnd he immediately has her as his girlfriend. Unbelievable! She's not just bad luck for herself. She's a carrier. What a cruel fate! That boy with his body, the V shaped back and tiny waist and the butt. Gods, the butt. That boy in red and yellow. She sighed. She had a completely detailed mental picture of him in his suit. Gods. And that face! The big blue eyes and those cheekbones. Even his lips are . . . Gods! She sighed in resignation to her reaction. If I had conjured a boy just for . . .

She sighed and recalled one of the group's efforts to impart normal cultural background knowledge to Starfire. They'd decided to try and fill in her blanks of information that kids of western background would have that she didn't. They recited fairy tales to her. Raven read Goldilocks and the three bears to her in the great room. Meanwhile, the Titan boys were all standing in her line of sight discussing something.

"Is this true, friend Raven, that ursine beasts sleep in large expensive beds on earth?" Starfire had interrupted, pointing to a picture.

"It's . . a fairytale, Star. Lots of funky things go on."

"Ahh. So, it is a land of funk in which these bears live."

Raven opened her mouth to correct her but decided just to press on.

"Goldilocks tried one bed but it was too hard," said Raven glancing at her giant, half metal teammate. "She tried another bed but it was too soft," she said glancing out the corner of her eye at the slack purple uniform on her green teammate. "Then she tried the third one and it was just right," she'd smiled and glanced at the scarlet clad butt beneath square yellow clad shoulders of another teammate.

That boy comes along and turns out to have an impossible to read auro, too. Aaarrrggghhh!

She thought of his aura. She breathed deep and closed her eyes taking in the whole Tower at once.

No!

It was true. She sensed only one other aura in the Tower. His. In the next room. He was asleep. She couldn't tell what his dreams were. It might've been because he was the product of 29th century genetic engineering. It could've been something about his being a speedster. But nothing in his aura quite as she would've expected. It was like going to the cupboard where the tea was and finding tofu and waffles in the teapot and the tea in the freezer. It was all just a bit different and hard to read. Hers was almost impossible to read. She'd tried. Maybe in this room, thought Raven glancing around her blackened quarters. Her powers were magnified in the room with all of it almost resonating with her every move. If both he and Jinx were in this room at the same time . . . .

That might've been awkward to arrange. And the truth was that she didn't want to know. She accepted her one time black haired crush being paired with Starfire because their auras were so obviously matched. Perfect compliments.

However perfect he and Jinx seemed together, if she didn't know for certain that their auras were matched she could freely entertain any thought she wanted about him. She admitted to herself that it was cowardly, that it was based on an expectation that they truly were matched. She reproached herself for, in even this way, choosing ignorance. But she continued with it just the same.

Lascivious reveries of him in any number of dimensions only continued because they were probably pointless. She didn't care. She kept reproaching herself, but with almost the same frequency she would learn something else about him, how much he read and what books he read. Rilke! Hugo! Isak Dinesen! She sighed at the thought. He seldom played video games with the other boys. He was in the library all the time or reading in his room. Even the way he behaved with her. Gods. The devotion! The willingness to tie his fate to another's! Where did a boy get . . . .?

And now she dumped him. Ha! Raven smiled the bitter grin of the unrequited lonely at another so casually risking a similar fate. Wait till you go out there and look around and see what there is. You'll come back but . . . She smiled. Maybe it'll be too late.

He was awake. She raised one eyebrow. She could sense it. She couldn't read his mind or make precise interpretations of his aura. But she could make simple distinctions. Was he awake? Was he asleep? Was he generally happy or sad? Not much more than that a disconnected thought here or there at best. It both frustrated her and made him more interesting to her. No need to fight a temptation to read him. She could behave like other people did, acting with a charming ignorance about what everyone around you was thinking.

She got up and started for the hallway with the empty mug that she'd carried when she first heard. She could hear the faint sound of the water turning on in his quarters, in his bathroom. As usual, the faint hum of sound stopped fifteen seconds later. She shook her head. If I could run my hands over that body . . . She thought of the fun of exploring his surfaces then sighed.

I'd certainly take more than fifteen seconds.

She'd wanted to be in the hallway to bump into him but as she got to the door, she heard the rapid fire steps of him speeding past. She saw the door to the stairwell starting to swing closed and heard his rapid steps going downward. Of course, she told herself and headed for the Titans Tower Library.

When she got there, there he was lying on the couch with a book. Then sitting up. Then lying on his side. Then lying with his legs over the side. Every couple seconds there was an apparently instantaneous change of positions. And all the while he looked almost distraught.

Wally had been in his quarters after Jinx left. He'd started thinking about how Aunt Iris had done another tremendous favor for him and Jinx. And he felt a crushing longing to thank her, a pain like a knife in his gut that she was gone. He decided to try something different, to take a nap rather than stumble around in grief or stare out to the horizon on the ocean for an hour again. He managed to sleep for a while but immediately recalled his longing for Aunt Iris once awake. He decided to try the library for distraction.

There he encountered Raven. Suddenly, she was there a few feet away looking at him so differently than she every had before. She had the hood of her cloak off and the whole thing behind her shoulders so that her body in the costume beneath was much more visible. He was surprised at how fantastic she looked. He tried to deal with all the water in his teary eyes and blinked very rapidly.

"You look very pretty," he said softly.

"You can barely see me," she said with a smile. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I . . . "

She was beside him now, with a hand on his shoulder. He looked up in shock. Since when does she touch anyone. . . and she's smiling! What the hell?

She could guess his thoughts. They didn't always have to be read.

"Just want you to know that I'm there for you," she told him with another pleasing pat of his shoulder.

"Why'd she have to go?" he whispered.

She kept her hand on his shoulder, feeling the shape of his deltoid muscles.

"You know, I owe you something like five hundred hugs. You wanna let me work off some of that debt?"

He was up in a split second, squeezing her in his arms. She squeezed him in her embrace as his chest heaved with deep breaths. and ran her hands over him. He barely noticed. It just felt so good to hold someone. He barely noticed that Raven had an incredible hourglass shape. He just wanted some relief from feelings of grief and this gave it to him.

"See how good that feels?" he said stepping back.

She nodded, a little surprised that he didn't want to continue.

"Um, have you eaten already? I'm really hungry was about to have a late breakfast. I could make some more for you, if you'd like?"

"Um, alright," she managed to warble unenthusiastically and watched a red and yellow blur speed off toward the stairs and the next floor up where the kitchen was.

By the time she joined him two minutes later, he was making french toast and ham and had a kettle on to boil and a large mug set up for green tea set in front of one stool at the counter and a quart of orange juice set in front of the next one. She watched, in surprise as Kid Flash did a fair job of managing the grill and preparing three meals. Of course, he ate two of them, and a bite of her french toast, too. Still it was nice that he went to the trouble to prepare things.

She shook her head at the theft of food by the ravenous yet slender teen. "I could be upset if I didn't know you need that to power your speed."

"Well," he began between bites of ham, "Actually it doesn't."

"What? Then why do you eat so much? You eat more than Cyborg, for gods' sakes and he must weigh almost twice as much as you."

"Well," his tone turned serious. "This is all speculation. Flash and I don't know exactly how we work, which is pretty embarrassing-"

"More than that uniform?"

He laughed too. "Hey! I'm cool with the uniform now. Not like at first. I mean, I was just short of 12 years old and running around in this skin tight red and yellow outfit, just a little better than ballet in the front and back. I had the body of a Flash but a-a 12 year old one. I used to hate to stop, to be seen just standing there. I'd try to catch crooks and hold 'em in front of me, preferrably with my butt against a car when I presented 'em to the police so that that side of me didn't show either."

"And now?"

"Now, I feel funny wearing anything but this red and yellow second skin," he said tugging at the shoulder of his suit. "It's-it's not really exhibitionism. I'm just comfortable with being dressed like this and with how I look. I don't try to put myself on display but I don't really mind people seeing me. That ceremony at City Hall that they took that Youtube video from? I knew there were a bunch of girls back of me and Robin. But I just took it in stride."

He faced her waiting for a comment. He could tell she was looking over the upper half of his uniform, all that was visible where he sat. It didn't seem unusual to him. He was used to be stared at. Finally, she spoke.

"You were explaining about you and food . . . "

"Oh, yeah. Well, like I said, my running, my speed isn't actually powered by the food. Flash thinks that what he and I do is that our bodies create singularities. Do you know what they are?"

She nodded. "That's how I travel between dimensions. I create singularities through spells and incantations and sometimes using a talisman."

"Oh my god. Of course. You use them too!"

She faintly smiled at how he was so pleased to find that he wasn't so odd after all. Never wanting to be set apart.

"Well, Flash thinks that something about our bodies creates a singularity in each of us, a sort of dimensional portal that allows us to draw energy from a source in another dimension, energy that gives someone who uses it the ability to reach fanstastic speeds but doesn't seem to confer extra strength or invulnerability or anything else on us. It's like a force of speed only. So, Flash started calling it the speedforce."

"Speedforce? Like, let the speedforce be with you?"

He chuckled. "No. It's not like that. There's no telekinesis or mind control or horrendously bad dialog. It just gives super speed. And, haven't you worried, too, that some villain will harness the power of George Lucas's awesomely lame dialog for evil?"

"You were the one, anakin," Raven said in the deadest monotone possible.

"I love you so much Padme," said Kid Flash in his best imitation of a sprite's voice.

They fell into laughter. When they finally composed themselves, Raven asked, "And . . . why do you need to eat . . . " she watched him shovel in five forkfuls of french toast in just a second and gulp down what must've been a pint of orange juice. ". . um, like that?"

"Oh. Sorry. Well, my body's different," he began.

Raven nodded, presenting a placid expression to him while lascivious thoughts of the sleek sprinter flitted through her mind.

". . I-I process food, I digest it . . . differently. That's what the S.T.A.R. Labs people told me. I convert a lot more of what I eat to energy, to adenosine triphosphate in all my cells. But I need to. When I'm full of energy, I maintain my body's singularity, my access to the . . speedforce in some other dimension and I can run like . . .," he burst into a grin at the thought of what he could do then restrained himself to not seem immodest. "Well, I can do all the things I can do. But when I'm low on energy, it's like my body doesn't hold the door open to the speedforce, like I'm not configured right to create the singularity, like I can't plug into that energy and I don't have super speed. So, all the food I eat doesn't power my speed. It just sets me up to be able to receive all this energy from another dimension."

"Did you figure that out?"

"Some of it, based on what the S.T.A.R. Labs people told me and Flash's theories. I helped Flash connect the two."

"Smart . . . for a pretty boy," she quipped.

"I'm not a pretty boy."

"Sure you are. You're a complete pretty boy."

"No I'm not!" he was adamant.

"What do you mean you're not? Look at you."

He scowled. "Leaving-leaving aside the completely subjective judgements about looks that go into it, there's-there's a whole other component to it."

"Mmmm hmmm?" she smiled at him enjoying how hard he was fighting to avoid the label.

"There's a-a connotation of the guy's attitude. Speedy's a pretty boy. He . . he's a-a handsome guy, right? I mean, girls think he's handsome and . . . cute, right?"

She smiled at how hard he had to work to say the word "cute". "Ummm, yeah, I guess."

Now she felt uncomfortable.

"And, he never met a mirror he didn't like. He's a pretty boy! Not me! I-I don't do that stuff."

"Okay. I'll give you that there's some connotation of a peacock strutting to it-"

"Thank you!"

"But it's not just whether he's strutting it's whether everyone else thinks he's strutting and . . . well . . " She reached across and tugged at the shoulder of his suit, barely pulling away a tiny pinch of it despite a serious effort.

"That's not fair! I don't wear the suit to show off! I have to wear the suit, for running super speed!"

"Just the same . . ."

"Come on. I am not a pretty boy! I mean, the phrase. It's "pretty" and not some other word because it's meant to associate acting vain like a girl and not quite like a guy should act. I'm not . . . "

Raven burst into laughter at his continued effort to avoid the tag.

"You're pretty," he sputtered trying to continue. "I'm . . . well, whatever I am I'm not pretty."

Raven chuckled. "Give it up . . pretty boy." But was acutely conscious that he had noticed and complimented her appearance. She smiled at him.

Kid Flash smiled. "She'd started calling me that on the phone, as a joke, to kind of needle me, after she'd seen that they'd called me fire haired pretty boy in the paper."

"On the phone?"

"Yeah, before she was . . . killed. In a way I-I actually liked it from her, not the term, but that she felt I was strong enough to kid around with like that. She . . . what's wrong?"

Raven's expression had frozen and her face had then turned a sickly color.

"You were talking about your aunt?" Raven muttered softly.

"Well, yeah, who'd you think I was talking about?"

"J-"

Raven didn't even finish the single syllable before letting out an angry, embarassed groan, seeming to convert into black energy and dropping through the floor of the kitchen down to the 13th floor below.

It took him several moments.

J- ? Oh wait. And she lets me see her without the hood of her cloak and she actually returns my hug. "Why'd she have to go?" She meant . . . Oh my god. So . . . she overheard . . . and she thought Jinx . . . Oh my god! He considered his options for a moment then sped down to the 13th floor to her door.

Knock!Knock!

No answer.

"Raven! Please come out and talk! Please! I'm your friend. I'd never hurt you!"

He waited but there was no response.

"Look!" he shouted. "I'm coming in, in five seconds. Four . . three . . two . . one."

He vibrated in just inside the door. She was there face down on her bed. He looked around in wonder. Almost everything in the room was black. And almost everything was also on fire. At least she wasn't on fire. But, to his eyes, the entire room was burning, giving off some faint spectral glow that looked almost like flames.

"Um . . Raven? Is your room on fire or is it just me?"

"Get . . . out! You promised not to come in here!"

"No."

Raven jumped to her feet and advanced on him, fists clenched, dark angry eyes shining beneath her hood. "Get out of my room now or I will grind you into red and yellow dust."

"No you won't. I didn't try to hurt you. You won't hurt me."

"Azareth! Metrion! Zinthos!" She nearly spit at him from between clenched teeth and conjured two giant fists of the blackest most powerful energy she could command, one to each side of him, ready to pulverize the sleek, colorful boy. She breathed hard, compressing and making more powerful each obsidian fist.

But she couldn't. She stared at him and in her power magnifying room, she could see it was true. She sighed. The fists dissipated. He hadn't led her on or done anything to hurt her. He truly didn't want to. She sighed and instantly flew up through the ceiling, up through the next floor and to the roof.

He guessed it easily enough and was leaving the stairwell just a second after she'd settled against the rail. He sped over to a point six feet from her.

"Raven?"

She didn't answer. She kept looking out over the railing, her face hidden by her hood.

"Please Raven."

No answer.

"If you don't answer I'll end up standing here forced to say lines so bad George Lucas might've written 'em. Could you do that to a human being?"

He couldn't see her face but the faintest flinch in her shoulders led him to believe she'd smiled.

"You were the chosen one, Wally!" came a sardonic voice from under the hood.

He chuckled. "You can't laugh with me and maintain distance from me. You just can't. It's not human nature and I know that you're half human."

"Oh . . . Anakin." she droned.

"Um, alright. Please stop right now. Those were two of the most painful hours of my life watching that movie."

"I just had one of the most painful hours of my life. I don't let myself feel like that all the time. I don't careen from relationship to relationship like some girls."

He sighed heavily. "It just isn't going to happen. I know you're tremendously strong. There's no reason why this has to hurt you so-". He stopped. He immediately realized he'd gone too far in trying to tell her to get over it.

"You don't know why? Well, maybe if you weren't banging her against the wall between our rooms every night. I try to meditate and I hear faint screams of joy from your room for hours at a time. I . . . it wouldn't have been so bad before. But now Robin and Starfire, too. And Cyborg's got his thing with that girl now. Everybody's happyhappyhappy happyhappyhappy except for me. And not even in a dumb way, in a way that I can make fun of. At least give me material if not happiness itself."

He smirked.

"But . . . why not me?"

Kid Flash was shocked. She was hurt. That was real emotion. He felt compelled to put a hand on her shoulder. "What about . . Beast Boy?" he asked softly.

"WHY DOES EVERYONE TRY TO FIX ME UP WITH HIM?" she screamed and unintentionally let out a surge of black energy from every fingertip. Only his super speed saved Kid Flash from being accidentally destroyed as he was able to jump to one side in a thousandth of a second as a 12 foot wide section of the railing at the edge of the roof was instantly obliterated. He heard her say "sorry" as he leaned over and watched pieces of it fall 14 stories to the rocks below, landing with several audible metallic "clink" sounds. She snuck a look at him, stopping just before he straightened up and turned back to her.

"Sorry. But, what is this, a frigging ark or something? We have to pair up two by two, all us heroes. We have nothing in common! Did I sign a contract that said I'd go out with the last boy if I was the last girl?"

"Well, he is completely interested in you."

She sighed very heavily. "Is there any way in the world that I could NOT know that? I've had green versions of every animal imaginable nuzzle up against my ass. I've had dozens of small green birds and insects land on my cleavage. I've heard every stupid joke invented by the human race. I'm-I'm sick of green. I'm sick of elf ears. I'm sick of those teeth. I'm sick of that tiny nose. I'm sick of five foot three. I'm sick of that snicker, of that pancake flat little nothing butt of his, of shoulders no more impressive than mine, of . . . " She sighed with closed eyes. "I . . . I'm just not buying. He's not a bad person. Hell, he's a hero. But, I'm just not buying."

He gulped. Yikes.

"Fair enough. But the same way that choice can't be forced on you, no choice to leave Jinx can ever be forced on me."

"You're . . . sure?

He chuckled. "I'm sure. If I weren't just 15 and 11 months, I'd have already gotten down on one knee. But, Flash, made me promise to wait a bit longer. The days when she and I stay apart, when she visits her mother at the farm, they-they drive me crazy sometimes. Even at Flash's, I think about her all the time. And I love being with Flash. He's a great dad."

Raven let out a long slow breath. He looked right into her eyes from his slightly greater height.

"You have so much going for you. You're intelligent and attractive and-"

"the daughter of a demon."

He shrugged. "So what? I'm the son of a psychotic super villain who killed the only person who loved me as a child."

"I was only around to help destroy the universe."

"I-" He nodded slowly, in defeat. "Well, ya got me there, but the universe is still here, so it's all bonus time from here on out. Right?"

She smiled. "That's the Kid Flash point of view of things."

"Why isn't it your point of view? You've done so much good in your life. You've helped so many people. Jinx is Hindu and I think they'd say that you've built up a huge karmic credit in your name. So much sorrow avoided and so much happiness given in its place. Great joy will come to you," he smiled.

She opened her mouth to speak then shook her head looking at him, opened her mouth again and said nothing before closing it. He chuckled.

"You're not going to make fun of me?"

"I feel like I should . . all your optimism. I always associated it with stupidity but . . . you're not. Still, your point of view is so . . ." her voice trailed off and she shook her head communicating the word "weird".

"A point of view can be a self fulfilling prophecy. Expect sorrow and joy comes less to you."

She sighed heavily. "Ugh! Why don't the smart guys have any interest in me? You? . . . Aqualad?"

Kid Flash chuckled. "Aqualad?"

She looked bashfully away. "Yeah, I really thought he and I . . ."

"Raven! . . . Aqualad?"

"I know, I know. There's the whole gills and underwater thing but . . "

"Raven. The last time he was here at the Tower he . . ," Kid Flash sighed and rolled his eyes in embarassment. "He french kissed me in the deep end of the pool. I was 10 feet down and all of a sudden his mouth was on mine and his arms . . . Speedy had told him, as a joke, that I wanted him. Every time I went to work out or to the showers . . . ," he shuddered remembering the feeling of being pursued like that.

Raven's eyes went wide. "He's . . . !"

Kid Flash nodded. "Completely . . . . Um, not that there's anything wrong with that."

She looked weak again. Another option proven totally illusory. He instinctively stepped forward and hugged her. "You'll be fine, Raven. You'll get the joy you deserve," he said softly in her ear. He could feel her sigh. She never went limp or weak or acted unable to cope. She was very strong.

Raven luxuriated in the feel of him for a moment then separated. She took a step back with a sigh.

"Oh Anakin. Take care of the completely incomprehensible plot development then return to me."

"Oh Padme," he warbled in near falsetto. "Let me express affection for you in a way that not a single man, woman or child in the audience will find even remotely plausible!"

She smiled.

He smiled back.

"Friends?"

She nodded.

"Our secret?"

He nodded. "Our secret . . Padme," he smiled. With that he sped off.


	9. Reunion

When Jinx got home that night from visiting her mother, she found all the other Titans in the great room or adjoining kitchen. Raven was pouring herself a cup of tea and held the pot aloft with raised eyebrows to offer her a cup.

Jinx was a bit surprised at this friendly gesture. The two of them mostly maintained a respectful distance. But she nodded yes. She found Starfire was already at one of the stools by the counter, as well. Jinx nodded to her.

"Kory."

"Friend Jinx."

Raven handed Jinx her cup of tea. There was an exchange of nods, thank you and you're welcome. Then Raven took the stool farthest away from the great room. Jinx took the one nearest, in front of Kory. She sipped her tea, holding the mug with both hands. Mmmm. Excellent.

She turned toward Raven and gave another thank you nod. Raven nodded you're welcome again. She listened to the talk from the great room. There were two separate and overlapping arguments. She sighed.

"What is it this time?" she asked, turning to Starfire.

"I believe it is a question of whose mentor faces the more ba-, no, the-the . . . badasser villains," she said with a proud nod of certainty."

Jinx rolled her eyes. Again? Didn't they already argue that one, after who's just a sidekick and who's an ally? Oh, what did it matter. It was all about the fun of competing with each other for them anyway. The subject of their little debates didn't really matter. Beast Boy and Cyborg really cared about who was better at Halo4, though and were trash talking further away at the giant screen. Kid Flash and Robin were on the nearest couch, talking and accenting points with fingers jabbed into each other's chest.

"Oh, please, Bat Boy! We fight Gorilla Grodd. S.T.A.R. Labs found chunks of guys tougher than Mr. Freeze in his stool! Grodd's what Monsieur Mallah wants to be when he grows up and stops working with his organ grinder, the Brain. And you bat types haven't got anybody like that!"

"Well, you guys haven't got anybody like the Joker. The man's insane and brilliant at the same time, totally unpredictable and totally evil."

"Oooooo! A scheming mime. Real-"

"Shut up! He's not a mime! He's incredibly versatile. And look at your rogues! A whole passel of one trick ponies. Captain Cold. Gee. I wonder what he specializes in. Heat Wave." Robin looked to the ceiling of the great room tapping one finger on his lips. "Hmmmmmmmm. Heat . . . Wave. Nope. Nothing's coming to me. Please give me a hint at what his abilities might be?"

"Uh huh. Like Catwoman? No clues what her M.O. Might be. And Penguin! God! I guess if you put 50 pounds more fat on George from Seinfeld, give him a tophat, a cigarette holder and an umbrella and you've got a Batman rogue. Real scary stuff."

"Like your guy, Trickster, huh? When a villain's whole career amounts to an extended episode of Punk'd, with Flash as the target, it's hard to be too scared of him. Does Ashton Kutcher bail you guys out on your Trickster cases, or what?"

"Ha ha ha. Oops. Sorry! I guess I just summarized all your Riddler cases. Spaz giggles hysterically while making threats. Oooooo scary! Get Wes Craven and M. Night Shyamalan on the line!"

"Yeah, he's no resilient fighter like Abra Kadabra, your magician from the future, the guy who just wants to be applauded then he goes away."

"Uh huh. Gotta be real tough for you and Bats, trying to stop a bunch of morons who you can still sneak up on even after they send the bat signal up over the sky of Gotham City. Everybody out for dinner and a show knows what's coming but your bat villains are still . . . . shocked and chagrined! . . . to find you and Bats on their tails."

"I don't know if I should be getting any flak from a guy who chases villains who have a known hangout. I mean . . . . your villains all hang out in a certain bar! And everybody knows it! What's up with that!"

Kid Flash glared at Robin.

Robin glared back.

They fell to the floor grunting in a furious wrestling match. One moment Robin was on top. A split second later Kid Flash had the upper hand. He broke into a grin and stood up offering a grinning Robin a hand up. They exchanged a few more shoves but mostly just smiled at each other. Best friends.

Over her shoulder, Jinx saw Raven getting herself another cup of tea and muttering to herself. "Argue, fight, smile. Wash, rinse, repeat. At least some of the lines are clever."

At the counter, Jinx suddenly found Starfire's arms wrapped around her from behind and her cheek pressed to Jinx's ear before she pulled back just a bit.

"I love that they are best of friends. Perhaps you and I can become closer too," said Starfire.

At one time Jinx would've laughed derisively at the idea. But, to her surprise, she had become friends with Starfire, not as close as Wally and Dick were but definitely friends. She'd thought, from afar, that Starfire must be an annoying ditz. And she did lack book knowledge and cultural background about the earth. But she had an unerring sense of people and amazing emotional intuition. And she had an infectious, child-like joy in all the new sights and sounds that earth and a cosmopolitan city like Jump City presented to her. If your spirits were lagging, Starfire might just pull you along to enthusiasm with her.

Over by the hallway, Robin and Kid Flash had started wrestling again. Robin took Kid Flash down but was now almost pinned by his orange haired pal.

"Maybe Kory," Jinx smiled softly. "Come on, the ritual argument's over. I'll take my guy. You take yours."

Jinx pulled Kid Flash off Robin as he was trying to pin him. She did it by grabbing the little wing on the left side of his head.

"Ow-ow-ow!" he yelped before getting on his feet and walking besider her to his quarters. "I asked you not to do that!"

"Well, where else can I grab you? You don't have a loose sleeve or anything. Your uniform's too tight."

He wanted to respond to that, but the truth was he'd always liked that it was really hard for villains to get a hold of him in fights. He opened his mouth but said nothing. Over his shoulder he saw Starfire tugging on Robin's cape and pulling him along behind her.

She closed the door behind them and patted the top of his head then touched the wing on the other side of his head.

"Why'd Flash ever put these things on the uniform anyway?"

He kissed her and held her tight at the waist.

"He said he wanted the uniform to make you think of mercury."

"Is this where I make a dumb joke about mercury rising or temperature or you getting me hot?"

He nodded.

"Not gonna say it."

"You're so unpredictable," he said and kissed her again. "It's one of the things I like about you."

He kissed her again and they fell to the bed. Minutes later, she happened to roll on top and their lips briefly parted.

"I told momma about your finding him," Jinx whispered and ran her hand through his orange hair.

"What'd she say?" he asked looking up into her gorgeous face.

"Well, she kind of talked aloud to herself, softly, wondering how he was doing. Then she turned to me and said, "Holy shit, Virginia. This boy Flash . . . is he hooked on you or what? Did you know he was like this when you met him?"

He chuckled. "And what'd you tell her?"

"I said I knew you'd be a lot of fun and that I liked you but that was all."

After 8 hours more "fun" with some sleep interspersed, Kid Flash woke with his head at the foot of the bed, her atop him and their bodies only haphazardly covered by sheets or quilt.

Mmmmmmmm. He kept his sound of pleasure as quiet as he could, but it was hard. He was on his back with Jinx lying atop him, her ear over his beating heart. She gave a soft moan of pleasure and shifted atop him, squeezing his shoulder. He ran a hand down her back and rubbed his palm over her hip. All those training workouts! Sigh. He enjoyed the feel of her velvety soft skin a while longer till she stirred and woke. She lifted her head just enough to look him in the eye then sighed and put her head back down on his chest and enjoyed the feel of his warm skin. Lovers complicit in lazy pleasure.

A while later, they wordlessly agreed to get up and they both rose, stretched and yawned. Wally watched her head for the shower. She looked back over her shoulder and saw him suddenly in his Kid Flash uniform.

"Where're you going?"

"To get your flowers."

"Wally! What'd I say about not having to-"

"These are the ones I already paid for! Remember?"

She rolled her eyes. Oh yeah. She nodded. Okay. He grinned and sped out of the room a red and yellow blur.

Jinx took a leisurely shower and inspected herself with pride in the mirror afterward. His instruction might be a bit too type A, but Robin sure did know which exercises built which muscles. She smiled and put on Wally's Titans bathrobe. She emerged from the bathroom into his quarters expecting to see her red and yellow guy and perhaps red and yellow roses. She saw neither.

Hmmph. No big deal. He could be just about anywhere. A call from Flash. Police call. Fire call. Transporting victims from a car crash. Getting a cat out of a frigging tree. Who knows? He might've stopped to do just about anything. She knew he wanted to be there later that day. He'd wondered aloud if maybe her odd sort of nightmares had been a longing for her father fed by her premonitions. Somehow she knew that she was going to see him and it had dredged up all her feelings and longings and fed them to the point that she her emotions were running crazy as she slept. Wally would definitely be there.

She didn't worry. She went to the kitchen and got herself some breakfast. Beast Boy was there and greeted her with a smile.

"Want some tofu cakes, Jinx? They're really good!"

"Um, thanks, but I'm gonna have some french toast and ham."

"Ham?"

"Uh, yeah, ham."

"Do you have to eat other animals?"

"Um, don't they . . . eat other animals?"

"Not all of 'em!"

"Right. But the ones with sharp teeth do," said Jinx, heading to the stove and she bared her teeth at Gar pointing to her canines and incisors. "Sorry."

Beast Boy grumbled but left her alone.

Jinx had a nice leisurely breakfast and went back to Wally's quarters. She changed to her goth clothes and went to the Tower library. She went right to a certain shelf and picked out Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen. Wally'd accidentally gone into super speed talk in his excitement recommending it that time. Sooo funny!

She loved Dinesen's style and totally lost track of time. Suddenly she looked up and noticed that it was three o'clock. Shit! Supposed to meet papa at the airport at four. She jumped up and went to his quarters. He wasn't there and there still weren't any new flowers there. She walked briskly up to the great room. There was no sign of him. She tried the roof and then came back down to the kitchen where she saw Robin.

"Have you seen Wally?"

He sighed. Not this again. I don't know where he is. She gets mad at me. Ugh.

"No."

"He was supposed to go to the airport with me. If he doesn't take me, then I have to get going pretty soon to be there on time."

Robin paused. She wasn't angry. He got off a defensive posture and acted as he normally would.

"When do you need to be there?"

"Four o'clock. There's a flight from Keystone City landing at four. I-I really have to be there. And I'm shocked that Wally's not around."

"Let's be sure of that," said Robin. He called Wally over the Tower sound system asking him to come to the communications center. They waited a couple minutes there, as though it would take the fastest boy alive more than a millisecond to get there.

"He might've gotten a call from Flash," suggested Robin. "You know how much he loves helping his dad."

Jinx nodded. "I-I'm gonna meet my papa . . . first time in 10 years."

"Oh, jeez, Jinx. No kidding? That's-that's not the kind of thing Wally would miss."

Jinx only shook her head gravely.

"He's got such a-a thing about family and parents and everything.

Jinx nodded again.

Robin tried to contact Flash. He left a message on the common frequency accessible to both the Titans and the Justice League. He even tried to contact Batman to ask if he knew if Flash was on a case and had Kid Flash with him but ended up leaving a message with a delighted to speak to him Alfred.

Robin sighed and looked at the clock. 3:40.

"Come on," he said. "I'll take you in the T-Car. Meet me on the roof in a minute. I'll wear normal clothes. You gonna wear a hat?"

It took Jinx a moment to adjust from concern about Wally's whereabouts to disguising her appearance. "Yeah, I'll uh I'll wear my big hat."

"Maybe a coat over that stuff, too?"

Jinx sighed and nodded.

A few minutes later, somewhat disguised, she found herself in the T-Car, flying across the bay seated next to not Robin but schoolboy Dick Grayson with his Jump City Academy blazer and neatly parted hair. Through a series of sighs, her thoughts shifted from Wally to papa. Her papa.

She only had a certain number of clear memories of him. She remembered him picking her up under her arms and whirling her about the room and somehow breaking a rib in the process. She remembered him bent over and whincing in pain.

She remembered what his face looked like, a fairly handsome man, or he could've been if he didn't always seem to be sick. She wondered if she'd recognize him.

And she wondered just what she felt toward him. It was hard to say. There was some anger there. He had left her, after all. But that anger was part of a weakness that her life, till meeting Wally had been a struggle to overcome. She wasn't going to be beat by her unfortunate circumstances. She wasn't going to give in. She was going to make her own way, gods damn every single person who said otherwise. She'd minimized the hurt over and over. He left me and then mama left me and so what? I took care of myself and made my way almost to the top of the villain game. She was nobody's little victim. And feeling too hurt at his leaving, being too angry about his leaving was being a victim.

He was an emotional wound that she'd bandaged over and convinced herself to ignore. Now she was looking at the scar and flexing and seeing if it still hurt. Fact was, it did, but in a lesser, sort of distant way. And now, she understood about the sick way he'd always looked and why. The edge was taken off the hurt still more.

Dick Grayson nudged her shoulder when the T-Car, to all the world just a four year old Camry, stopped in the garage at the airport. He took the sheet of flight information in Wally's handwriting. At first, he had to lead her through the terminal, but gradually, she came out of her introspection and walked briskly along as fast as he could go. They got to the gate just a few minutes before the plane landed and Jinx got a piece of cardboard and a marker from someone else with a very large sign. She wrote, MR. MURPHY as big as would fit on a small piece, just in case she didn't recognize him.

Finally, the plane pulled up to the gate and a few minutes later people started emerging into the terminal. About halfway through the procession of travelers, a tallish man, in his late 30's, in jeans and a western style shirt under a leather jacket, came into sight. His expression was a sort of tentative enthusiasm. He made a beeline for her and Jinx's mouth fell open.

"Papa," she whispered.

From behind her, Dick Grayson watched her father hug her and immediately whisper an apology. They tried to start following Dick but fell into another extended hug. He told her she looked like the prettiest girl in the world and she remarked at how healthy he looked. They hugged some more and at last, Dick was able to shepherd them along. Jinx was shocked at his appearance. He was older but, at the same time, much healthier. They talked a little as Robin led them through the terminal back to the garage to the car.

"Get in," said Robin nodding to the back seat.

"Um, sure, but, uh, who are you?" asked Mr. Murphy.

Dick Grayson waited till they were all in the car and the doors were shut before he said, "I'm Robin."

"Oh, holy shit. You dress a whole lot more normally than that other one, Kid Flash."

"This is a disguise. I wear a cape and a mask normally," said Robin and he wheeled the car through the garage to the roof where he shocked Mr. Murphy by driving right at a fragile looking guard rail but rising into the air first, before the car would've plunged forty feet. Race car mechanic Don Morgan marveled that he was somehow in a car that was flying. He spent the first half of their trip across the bay to the Tower just gawking at what was taking place and stammering out questions about their mode of transportation. Finally he turned to Jinx.

"So, how angry are you still, Virginia?"

Jinx shook her head at how her own feelings surprised her. "At a certain age," she told him, "I promised that I'd kill you if I ever saw you. At another age, I told myself that it didn't mean anything one way or another that you left me. And at another age I told myself that it was the best thing that could've happened to me because it made me tough and made me take care of myself and become a force out there."

"And now?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I really don't. I feel bits of anger. I-I don't feel anything like-like thanking you for leaving me. But at the same time, I, well, it probably is true that it made me become stronger, forced me to."

"If it makes you feel any better, your boyfriend, vented on me a bit."

"He did?"

Mr. Murphy sighed. "I-I had it coming. I . . . I was scared to come here."

"Scared of me?"

"Well, that too. You can probably kill both of us with just a wave, couldn't you?"

Jinx nodded, not without pride. "I don't just mess up toasters and things now, daddy."

"No, I bet you don't. I read every article about you. An' I felt guilty as hell that I didn't do better for you even though I think I might've done all I could. But after enough years, I guess I stopped beating myself up. And I got on with living. Didn't make it okay. I just . . stopped punishing myself. I was scared to face that guilt again. He said it'd be good for you, though, to meet you again. He said if I actually loved you I had to do what was good for you even if it was hard. He was pretty damn forceful about it. But he was right. So . . here I am."

"By 'he', you mean . . . Kid Flash?"

Mr. Murphy nodded.

The T-Car landed on the roof and Jinx led her father to the elevators then down to the 13th floor and to Wally's quarters. She passed Beast Boy in the hall.

"Gar, this is my father. Dad, this is Beast Boy."

They shook hands cordially.

"Have you seen KF?" she asked.

Beast Boy shrugged and shook his head.

She led her father into Wally's room.

"Jesus Christ," he whispered. "That boy is green!"

Jinx nodded. "Uh huh. And he can change his body into the body of any animal he can think of in just a second. This is Kid Flash's room," she said gesturing for him to take the chair at the desk while she sat on the chair against the opposite wall.

"This is a pretty great setup you've got here, Virginia."

She nodded.

His eyes got watery again and he wiped at them with one thumb and index finger. "I used to get all agitated seeing somebody lavishing attention on their little girl or buying something expensive for her. I couldn't get you something like this," he said gesturing with both hands to Wally's room. "But I should've done better. That's probably why I'm spoilin' my daughter by my second wife."

"Oh. You . . remarried?" asked Jinx, sitting up straighter in her chair but leaning away from him.

"Four years ago. Got a three year old daughter now."

Jinx nodded with no smile. Her mind raced. She crossed her arms at her chest and nodded.

He broke the silence that'd suddenly fallen. "So . . . you and this boy . . . this Kid Flash?"

"Yeah?" she asked, her tone suddenly flippant.

"You're gonna make me ask you flat out?"

"Sometimes dads have to ask uncomfortable questions."

"You sleep with this boy?"

"I don't know if I'd say that. We don't sleep a whole hell of a lot. But we are in the same bed," she smirked.

Mr. Murphy groaned. "What about this boy? I mean, ka-rist! I never been to any . . ballet but I've never seen a guy dressed like that!"

Jinx smirked. "He's built for it."

"Is he a bit of a weirdo?  
Jinx laughed. "Oh, gods. Him! A weirdo! If you knew how ridiculous that was!"

"Quite the friggin' pretty boy in that suit. You with this boy for how he looks?"

"No dad. He's gorgeous and he's got a perfect sleek, skinny sprinter body with the best pair of buns on the planet but that has nothing to do with being attracted to him. What, do you think I live in some ivory fricking tower? I've course I love how he looks! Of course it's part of it!"

"Well, how much more is there?"

"There's everything more! That's how much there is. Believe me. He's into looks and the physical side too. But me and . . . " she avoided referring to him as Wally. "him just fit right on every level. Brains and humor and personality and everything. It works in every way daddy. He's terrific."

"Somebody abandoned that boy?"

Jinx sighed. "It's really complicated."

And she realized that her feelings for her father were as well. There was forgiveness. There was anger at the past. There was anger at his new present, his second family. But there was also thanks that he had come. And, in the end, thanks and forgiveness were the better part of her feelings. She spoke with her father for a few hours more, talking about Titans life in some detail and about HIVE life in generalities. He told stories about her growing up, about having the smartest little girl around and the strongest willed, about people looking funny at a pink haired, gray skinned little girl and trying to deal with that. He tried to justify leaving with recounting everything that'd gone wrong. He told her that he and her mother had split on friendly terms.

She listened but it was all colored a bit by that second family. There wasn't a hollywood style reconciliation coming. She reconciled with her past but it wasn't going to be her future. So, when they had no more time, Robin, now in full uniform including mask and cape, met them at the roof and flew the T-Car to the airport, a rather quiet ride. This time, they landed on the tarmac next to the gate from which he was leaving. Mr. Murphy gave her a kiss, got out and waved as the T-Car soared up into the sky. Jinx waved back.

"So, how was that?" asked Robin, eventually.

"Educational," she said softly.

"How's that?"

"You can't go home again. I . . . for a moment there I thought maybe this'd be a kind of fairytale, everything wrong made right. But it wasn't a fairytale. And he's moved on to a second story. Maybe the moral of that story'll be different than this one. "

"Sorry."

Jinx sighed. "Don't be. I've moved on to a second story. Now I really want to see Wally."


	10. Unchosen Mentor

_Author's note: The author is not his characters or necessarily anything like them._

A figure waited inside a warehouse for the red and yellow van to arrive with its particular red and yellow cargo made up of mostly water, the only one like it on earth. The figure was cloaked in shadows. He could have turned on a light but darkness suited him. The cool grit of the warehouse seemed right. He'd never surrounded himself with sunshine or bright lights or shiny surfaces like some of them did. He'd been interested in the real animating forces of life not glitz and glamour like those fools. The spaces he'd created had always been completely utilitarian.

So, he crouched in darkness beside a series of chains operating the door and a winch because it was the right vantage point from which to see a van approach and enter. And it felt right to be amidst the mechanisms that actually made the complex function. At ease in his surroundings, he mused on recent events that led to the impending delivery of the cargo.

My bird. The return really was for my bird, wasn't it.

Sooooo impossibly difficult at first. Recollections were so jumbled. Understandable after a transition like that. No easter for me. Ha. No Lazarus. Nothing like that. A return to flesh and life. How? Hmmph. I couldn't explain. But divine intervention on my behalf was probably not the cause. Ha ha. As devastating as it is to the flesh, it seemed that death was even less kind to the mind. So many recollections were missing random pieces at first. Senses were so jumbled, like some nobs on the stereo turned all the way up, others all the way down. There were no smells at first. But every sound seemed magnified. The generator turning on at the warehouse hideout was like suddenly being in a battelefield during an artillery barrage. Taste was barely there as was touch. Sight was strangely improved, if not binocular.

Recollections were so jumbled. Seven secret bank accounts were out there. Information never written down so that the yield of years of villainy couldn't be taken by someone who got hold of my papers or if I was somehow arrested, not that that could ever happen. . But only two could be recalled.

The fury at this failing! Monumental.

Other puzzle pieces slowly came back. Those five would, too. He felt sure of that. The two were enough to rebuild. The recollection of the five would return. Some memories were just temporarily lost. But every moment with the bird had been retained. Every second fighting him, listening to him shout warnings or threats or pleas. Especially the pleas! Sigh. Ahhhh the pleas!

That button nose. The lustrous black hair. That glowing skin. Every moment was still there. The first tingle since resurrection was from recalling the time he was on the slab and . . .

He smiled. There it was again.

Tingle.

He let out a small deep throated chuckle that echoed in the empty warehouse. And, after helping them fight Trigon, he tells me nothing has changed. Ha ha ha! Goooooooood Bird! Good!

He laughed. Do you still obsess over me because of it, Bird?

The bird had been restrained. Nothing he could do to defend himself. He had to know what domination really meant. Those squeals and yelps and even pleas turning into full throated vows of revenge, all completely futile. That was domination. Being the traffic cop for toad and tin man and the two . . females, that wasn't domination. My bird was meant to dominate but he tried to control it. He tried so hard to be a girlish boy, to be nice, to play well with others. He tried to be friendly. As if he could be himself and dominate them in a friendly way. So ridiculous. Men like my bird and I were intended to dominate all they saw. My bird was always intended to follow in line after me.

Everyone denies it. Oh, they accept half of it. Survival of the fittest. And what does that mean? Hmmm? What does that entail? Hmmm? Domination. That's what! Domination. Do you stop after survival? Does anything in all of nature stop after achieving bare survival?

He chuckled to himself.

Ridiculous. Every organism from an amoeba up to beautiful Bird keeps going, keeps trying to succeed, to express itself, its own abilities, its dominance over others. Domination of the fittest. I sensed it from the start, med school and with the army. Ironic that that experiment in being able to resist truth serum was when I first saw the truth all the way. My own domain was just waiting. Try and catch me or stop me. Try and prevent my domination pathetic police and misguided heroes. Ha. The strong in service of the week. Exactly backwards! Exactly backwards! Take Bird, for instance.

From the very first time seeing him, it was so obvious. There he was at that robbery site while I pretended to be just another passerby coming upon the scene. There he was, all sharp features and shiny dark hair, even more slender and yet shockingly athletic as only a male, a dominant male, can be. 14 years old, likely only 14 years old and telling the policemen how to do their job from pure instinct from knowing a fight and having the pure cunning of a dominant, alpha male. And they listened. They listened to him! They did what he said those fat, doughnut bloated fools! The reed thin boy in his snug uniform was their master and they knew it! It was there in his body language, light on his feet, chest out, chin up and his face all calm command. They knew it. He didn't have to present credentials to them, beautiful Bird. He simply stood before them and they knew.

The story could have been written to the finish right then. It was so clear. He was so . . . exciting. Yesssssssssss. Exciting. He would be my apprentice and then more. He resisted, even my . . . personal domination of him, haha. But he wasn't successful in that and he won't change his destiny to be mine in the long run, either. It'll just take some time. It's not as easy as simply birthing an heir.

If only creating a chain of domination were so easy. Unfortunately, the will to express what a man truly is, to dominate all around you doesn't seem to go naturally to progeny. It's the . . female who ruins it . . as they ruin most everything. It's the . . female who corrupts the blueprint for an offspring who should be astride the whole world and produces a willowy boy worth nothing. Or worse . . .

But the selection, the sifting out of unsuitables has been done for me. Eugenics done for me by the whole world. If the Teen Titans didn't exist I might create it myself. My bird is offered to me on a platter. Perhaps he would be less resistant if I hadn't . . . He remembered it again, Bird bucking and resisting and even shouting curses well after resistance was too late. But the taking of him was irresistable. My bird had such an energetic masculine shape. Such soft skin. Ahh, the taste of the back of his neck.

And toad and tin man and the . . females wonder why he's so obsessed with beating me. Hahahahahahahaha.

He never told them, did he? He was humiliated to be dominated like that, made to feel pleasure despite his pain, despite himself. Nothing could humiliate him more than domination because that's his true nature. His life revolves around it. It's the core of him. To have someone else turn it around and dominate him? Ha ha ha! And it fueled a raging fire in him to avenge my using him. But, he was falling right into my trap. The greater trap of what I was making him become. Obsessed. Unrelenting. Dominant. He had to be dominant. If no one challenged him, he could soften and become weak and go away from his true nature. But I didn't let that happen. I enraged him. I made him obsess. Hmmmph. He's even more appealing totally engraged. So odd that he didn't see what I was doing. I was making him into me from a distance, molding my bird, forming him as surely as if I was squeezing his body again, until I would take him again. The irrelevant aspects of him were burning off like a thin coat of paint on a piece of metal thrust into a blast furnace. He was becoming me in the process of trying to fight me. How did he not realize?

But, no. He didn't. Then . . .

Teeth ground together furiously at the recollection of a failure.

Strange that I find my death as unbelievable as my coming back. It shouldn't have gone that way. My plans were sound. They should all have worked. Damn them. Damn that stupid girl. I should never have relied upon a . . female. Damn them

And then, subsequently, another rage. Damn him most of all, I thought for a time. Damn him.

Cheetah.

It's the only name for him. What a preposterous boy. What a truly ridiculous boy! Red and yellow like a second skin with garish, almost fluorescent orange hair on top. Probably fake. Ridiculous! He wasn't there before. There was a balance to my Titans like a fine swiss watch, all the pieces spinning and whirring away in perfect measured movements, each doing their part, even the . . females. And at the center of it was my bird. Nothing was changing my bird. They all had their roles and his was the dominant one. They weren't about to change my bird. But Cheetah changed things. He changed the balance of the team, upset the established roles. He even changed my bird. Damn him!

So much time had to be spent researching what Cheetah could do, just as dossiers on all the others had been prepared. At least recovery could be diverted into this research, not just the risibly simple theft of the police file on him, but collecting every newspaper mention or picture. Every magazine article. Watching tape of every news story, every interview, till I could have smashed that pretty boy face of his.

Fastest land animal? Yes, with the exception of cheetah senior in Keystone City, it would be the ridiculous boy. What a temptation to literally take him apart and see how he ticks! How can muscles work like that? How does a digestive system extract enough sustenance for such amazing feats? What's going on inside him? Could I dissect Cheetah and take his secrets and use them myself?

A smile curled his lips at how he'd wanted to pull his innards out with the ridiculous boy still conscious, strapped down and still conscious to see me pulling his stomache out of him, to see the look on his face. Like the look on the face of that med student who'd walked in on me that time. Kline? Yes. Kline with his womanly propriety and morality. Can you look down your nose at me now, from that landfill where I left you, Kline?

Hahahahahahahaha.

But the ludicrous Cheetah was awfully hard to keep hold of, wasn't he? There were the stories of him moving through walls and burning anyone who tried to hold him. There were stories of him creating mini-tornadoes from his sprinting and perhaps just from moving his arms, too. There were the various, wild tales of just how fast red and yellow Cheetah could actually go. Some just said, the speed of sound. Others said much faster. There was that tabloid story that he could approach the speed of light. At a certain point, it didn't much matter? Did it? At a certain point he would be too fast to defend against. He was probably that fast. He'd apparently overwhelmed the HIVE Five. They were just children but Cheetah had nothing but his speed and he overwhelmed six foes of many abilities.

Oh yes, Cheetah was very impressive. But, at first, it was certain that he had to die. And the death would have to be exceptionally grisly and slow. Ha. The irony of a slow death for a boy like that! He had changed the bird. Before . . it happened . . before my . . transitions, the bird had a certain air about him. He wanted to dominate. He was programmed to dominate. The Bat had done his work well. I would like to have seen those training sessions! Bird's nature was to dominate all those around him. He had to work so hard not to force the others to do things, to ask them, to relax his expectations of them. How it must have killed him to deal with the two . . females, happy and harpy and stupid, childish toad! But he powered that team himself, gave it direction and momentum. They were just his appendages. He was the Teen Titans.

Then!

There was a time of veins almost popping in rage at the reports. The newspapers were full of stories of the two of them being best friends, Cheetah and my bird? They were at a certain pizza shop all the time. They spoke at schools. They simply -ugh- . . . hung . . around together. And garish Cheetah, with his orange hair, had infected my black haired bird with his orange cheerfulness. My black haired bird had had a wonderfully dark aspect about him at all times before the advent of Cheetah. An air of dominance. His sharp, masculine features were always burning with intensity in photos. He'd never been smiling in pictures before. Oh, there had been a few staged pictures but the grins were like hostage photos.

Mmmm hostages. Ahhhhh.

Where was I? Oh yes.

Otherwise he was always grim, as befitted a man. Then!

Past fury was recalled.

Newspapers were shredded in anger. Nothing could be done while recovering, while having to hide to regain strength and abilities. Nothing. And there it was, in seemingly every day's papers. He was seen laughing here, grinning at his . . . pal . . . there. One article in the Jump City Tabloid had talked about the "new Robin" in glowing terms. Oh, the anger toward Cheetah that welled up within. What contempt for the happy go lucky speedster.

Seeing him in person had been almost too much to bear in the first few moments. Even in a weakened condition, even with it being a totally wrong move, the desire to kill him had nearly been overwhelming upon sighting him. But every hunter knows there is a right and a wrong time to bag your game. Standing there in the wings at City Hall while the mayor presented the Titans with an award was not the right time. Too weak still and they were too strong.

But there he was, just five feet away. His back was just five feet away. And anger melted away. Anger became . . . anger became . . like the feeling for my bird, that sweet tingle for the bird. Cheetah was . . . astounding.

Oh, the tingle!

Such slender waisted muscularity, the lithe, wiry muscularity! Perhaps just over five foot ten. Not 150 pounds, not quite, he guessed, not with that tiny waist. But, at a glance he was the fastest boy on earth. At a glance! It was apparent to anyone at a glance, not just those who'd been to medical school and taken apart dozens of bodies.

Excellent square shoulders, all the deltoids proudly in view and wonderful trapezius muscles above and latissimus dorsi below. Fine pectorals and articulated ribs, eight abdominal muscle squares, not just six, but eight and all tapering to a tiny waist with hips no wider. Yet, back of him! The most masculine possible musculature. The ultimate masculine shape. He shifted his weight slightly from one foot to the other, as a speaker droned on, slightly flexing one crimson arc of muscle then the other beneath that tight uniform. Every woman in sight was watching him. Him and not toad or tinman or even bird. Him. Ha! They should, those . . females! This is the shape a male can attain! This is a body in the shape of energy, this is a human being who IS velocity, not some pathetic hodgepodge of an anatomical compromise between child bearing and suckling and a modicum of athleticism. He IS energy. They all saw it and they all reacted to him.

Cheetah was . . beautiful. Somehow it had never come across completely in the television clips, the full powerful, almost stylized perfection of him, speed turned into a boy, energy turned into a boy, on television. Of course they usually showed him from the waist up and never from behind, not in focus, anyway. The mere sight of Cheetah down there was too provocative to show the general public.

To top it off, he carried himself with a perfect masculine indifference to their reactions. And then there was his expression speaking to that reporter, that . . female reporter. Intensity. Cheetah was garishly colored and smiled altogether too much. But there it was in his face. Intensity! He was three steps ahead of her questions. You could see it. And he didn't like her questions. There was intensity. Cheetah dialed it down to deal with her. What a feeling of unexpected joy as she looked up into his face, his naturally perfect face with her layers of fraudulence, her makeup, her . . female war paint, her snivelling question like a clod of dirt he should just kick off his boots. But he stood there and answered. And his expression was so serious. He was, what, 20 years younger than her and he was the real adult. He parried her stupid question with ease. An article had hinted at this, hadn't it? "Most bookish of the Teen Titans – Kid Flash". Toad had snickered and called him the "most nerdy" of them in an interview. But, there was a gravitas there that toad would never have, nor even slightly withdrawn tin man. He had the wrong flavor to his intensity but he faced questions from the reporters with the air of a man, with true masculine focus.

He had to sigh at the recollection. So serious, my Cheetah. Yet, he was not meant to dominate everyone. The little clues were everywhere in his interaction with my bird, he let my bird decide things. If you say so, Robin. Whatever you want, Robin. He accepted that my bird was his boss. Just further proof of how great my bird is, that incredible Cheetah would immediately accept his dominance. He would be an excellent right hand man for me or my bird. Cheetah could be part of bird's flock, of his family. The inspiration struck so quickly. It was so obvious.

Two apprentices!

All the physical rehabilitation, all the grueling work became easier, almost happy. Extra injections of the special amphetamines. Less sleep. Train train train. Prepare prepare prepare, because that was the prospect ahead, Cheetah as Slade Flash and Bird as my successor.

It was so disappointing to learn that Cheetah had a mate, that Cheetah was giving his energies to a . . female, even a powerful one like the pink witch. Why, Cheetah? Why? She's not worthy of you. Only my bird is. And you and my bird are best friends! Why can't they see what's so obvious? And the mate is so completely . . female. Ugh. Everything about her. Pink? Ugh. Don't surrender to weakness, Cheetah!

The excruciating gossip columns! Ugh. Him kissing her here. Her looking dreamily at him there. The two of them spotted together at Club X, at Club Y. No, here! No, there! So insipid! Even a less discerning reader could not help but infer that the extraordinary boy was besotted with her and courting her non-stop. Hope of deliverance from this horror, of the most perfect slender masculine boy giving his unparalleled self to a . . female was hard to maintain.

And he did. Ugh. The only consolation was that this magnificent boy surrendering to that . . female might give the way to capture Cheetah and to hold him till he could be reprogrammed, till he saw the true nature of things. He had taken down even very wily foes when he was ready and could react at his otherworldly speed. The key was to get him before he knew there was a fight.

The work was contracted out to only the best, a man the mob hired to kill other top mob figures. He was observed over a period of weeks. His movements throughout Jump City were logged, not where he went on missions or patrolling or chasing crooks but where was he seen on his own time. The shooter determined that there were only two realistic possibilities. One was the pizza shop that he was frequently seen at with Bird. But the sight lines there were poor and Bird was often around. There probably could not be a second shot. No. That wouldn't do. But, the shooter told the man who hired him, the man he couldn't see behind the high powered lights on the other side of that hotel room, that there was another possibility.

"He's nuts for the pink haired girl and he buys her flowers all the time at the same shop on the edge of the high class shopping district. Been there so many times they don't give it a second thought when he comes running in. Great sight lines there. I can hide three different places and shoot him the way you want with that crazy glorified bb."

"Just see that you do," a scrambled voice had told him. "And, now, when will you do it?"

"He's there most Thursday mornings. Gets her roses or something exotic. But he's there most Thursdays, around 9:30. I'll be there long before that."

"See that you are. I'll contact the second step people."

Kid Flash zipped into the flower shop in the expensive Jump Village district. He smiled at Natalie behind the register. She'd met him many times now. They'd spoken a few times. She made suggestions or pointed out unusual selections. Today, she pointed out an extremely rare chrysanthemum that had splashes of both red and yellow color. He smiled and nodded. Of course. He saw Tony, the young guy who worked at the shop, staring at him. He waved to Tony as Natalie bundled up a half dozen of the special mums. He grinned at her at the register. She'd once tried to give him flowers for free. His patronage had actually gotten them a fair amount of business, women and gay men wanting to be there when the hyper-athletic teen showed up. But Kid Flash wouldn't hear of it. He wasn't going to be like one of those cops who took an apple from every fruit vendor on his beat. He paid and said thank you and stepped outside as usual and took a deep breath of the almost perfumed scent of the special mums. He paused on the sidewalk for a moment, thinking of how he would rub the soft flower across her breasts, picturing naked Jinx. Mmmm. And then down . .

"Unnh."

He barely felt a sort of pinprick at the right side of his butt. But the special thorazine based drug cocktail, with ingredients synthesized by Slade just for use against Kid Flash, rendered him unconscious before he even hit the ground. No one passing by on the larger street paid any attention to the red and yellow DHL van rushing up to the curb just a little ways from the florist. They made pickups there for deliveries all the time. The van pulled away, leaving only a few chrysanthemum petals on the sidewalk as a sign that he'd been there.

The fake DHL van was then parked beside a warehouse a mile away. When another driver got in a minute later, he glanced in the back, contrary to the instructions he'd been given, and saw only a vague shape wrapped in a carpet. He drove the van to another warehouse, honked the horn twice at the prescribed door and drove in when it opened. He was killed before he got out of the van and his body eventually disposed of in a furnace.

"Follow instructions, drone! Do you think were not being watched!"

The body that counted was wrapped in a thick carpet that was carried into the huge, but apparently abandoned warehouse by Slade. Then a button was pushed and a piece of sheet metal slid aside and an elevator was revealed. A sleek, silvery door opened and Slade carried his burden inside. He pressed for the main level, two floors down and while they descended, pulled aside the carpet enough to see a thick tangle of bright orange hair but nothing more. It was enough. Slade sighed with satisfaction but his pulse also raced. With some effort he pulled the carpet back farther to look at the unconscious face. The boy looked like he was only asleep. Pale perfect skin under his cowl with outrageous orange hair spilling out the top of his uniform.

The elevator door was open but Slade remained inside, staring at the boy's so handsome face. Soooo masculinely handsome. He touched a lock of orange hair. He stared some more and slowly ran one finger across a very prominent cheekbone.

"My Cheetah," he whispered in a hushed tone that was mostly his normal monotone, but part adoration.

Then, he carried the unconscious teen into the medical room at the complex. He threw aside the carpet and lay the limp teen hero down on the metal topped examining table in the center of a room ringed with the most advanced lab equipment.

He tugged at the red and yellow uniform. Hmmph. He could barely pull it apart from the teen's skin. He looked for a zipper or some kind of separation between top and bottom. But, to his surprise, found none. It was a body suit. There were openings at his wrists and at his face, his cowl, but that was it. Slade realized he had no other choice and laboriously pulled the uniform off him from head to toe. It took surprising effort. He had to push hard against his back to pull it past his hips. It was amazingly soft, smooth material on the inside, this spandex looking stuff. What was it made of, he wondered. He yanked off his sole undergarment, a dance belt the same blood red color as his uniform's lower half then caught his breath at the sight of the teen underneath. His skin was pale but uniform and perfect, not so much as a freckle anywhere on him. No moles, no rashes, no discolorations anywhere. Perfection. He was nearly hairless, too, only some almost invisible hair on forearms and calves other than . . that hair. Hmmph. His hair really was orange.

The garish second skin off him, black and gold would be so much better, Slade decided, he inspected amazing Cheetah. Even in that position, lying limply on his side with his torso twisted so that his shoulders faced down, he was amazing. How is a boy like this produced? What a fantastic design! Was that how he got like this? Was he designed to be this or was he shaped by the activity, by the super speed running. Either way, Cheetah was a stupendous product. He was perfect efficiency. No fat, none at all and a physique that minimized mass while relative motive power, sleek sinew was maximized wherever possible.

Slade ran a hand over an outrageously developed calf muscle. No cost in extra mass beyond this muscle itself, so very large calves. Thighs were well muscled but not thick, not wide. That required pelvis width and that added lower torso weight. His pelvis was a narrow as possible. And, yet, behind it. Slade sniffed, almost a laugh. Of course. The greatest sprinter on the planet. He patted him and continued his inspection. Minimal waist widening out to excellent shoulders. But the arms are nothing special. He took in all of him lying there. He considered his medical training and all he learned and researched since then. Was there any way to improve on Cheetah's design? His lips curled at one end as he shook his head.

With a sigh, he pulled his shoulder toward him so that Cheetah lay on his back.

Hmmmph. He regarded, at some length, the almost improbable organ below the confirming orange hair. Hmmph. So much for perfect efficiency. Even Bird's not like that! He remembered his envy of Bird. But Cheetah . . . !

Hmmmph.

She must have done this to him. Jinx. Damned pink witch. She must have cast a spell on him, swelled and stretched him. Not an extra molecule on him anywhere else but . . . that! Ridiculous! She did this to scratch some . . female itch inside. Even Bird's not . . .

With a sigh, Slade said to himself that Cheetah was not like Bird in many ways. He ran one hand from just above the orange short curlies to his waist then up his side to his shoulder and back, almost wanting to confirm the teen hero's fantastic shape by touch, not trusting that a boy could really be this. Were his shoulders really that much wider than that tiny waist? They were and Slade drew a long slow breath of satisfaction at the sight of his new minion.

But . . . he could not resist. Cheetah's most outstanding feature was not showing. With his syringe containing another dose of his special thorazine based knockout cocktail at the ready in its extension from his glove, Slade lifted the naked teen speedster's left foot and crossed it over his right. Then he tugged at the teen's hip pulling him closer before pushing at the muscular buttock next to him and rolling the boy half over onto his right side. Slade stared with a smile. He remembered his art classes during medical school. He thought of the time he'd spent studying art history to correctly value the stolen pieces he was aquiring. That Red X could be so tricky, selling hamburger that looked like filet mignon instead of the real thing. But no figure he'd ever seen was like Cheetah. No painting, no sculpture. None of the other do gooder heroes. Not even big Cheetah. He rubbed one hand across the perfect skin with a chuckle. So powerful. A masculine shape completely impossible for . . females. It makes him dominant.

Tingle.

He smirked to himself. Oh yes. Yes. He knew from the start he would. Just like with my bird! Ha! What pure joy in domination of beautiful Bird. The purest most personal domination! Now, Cheetah would have to know the same feeling of anger as Bird at being dominated in the most basic way, the same obsessive need to fight back, the same obsessive focus on dominating, on expressing his will. Cheetah would be reoriented from that mate and whatever else took up his time to an obsessive focus on domination and vengeance, just as my bird had been.

He quickly tied the leather straps tight about his wrists and ankles and waited. Cheetah was starting to stir. He had to experience every humiliating moment as clearly as possible. Ha ha ha. Slade smiled in anticipation beneath his mask. He climbed atop the examining table, freed himself from his constricting uniform as necessary, and checked the syringe in the glove extension, just in case. With the palms of his gloves he spread Cheetah apart. It was just moments away when Cheetah stirred some more and then tugged against one strap holding his wrist.

Just as Slade lerched forward, he saw an amazing flurry of movement. First Cheetah grunted something then shook his right forearm, it became blurry for a fraction of a second, and the leather strap dropped away from it. Slade tried to grab his arm to hold him down but before he could, the super fast teen was rolling onto his side and the strap holding his left wrist had also dropped away from an arm gone blurry. Slade could feel him bucking and realized his ankles were also free. The teen had rolled onto his back before he knew it and Slade felt punch after furious punch, both lefts and rights, to his jaw, a dozen in just a second. Only his composure under pressure saved him as he tried to defend with one hand and, more importantly, plunged the syringe with tranquilizing cocktail into the super speed teen's muscular hip. Instantly, the blur of punches slowed. There was one last one, barely a tap to his now aching jaw and then bright blue eyes rolled back into his head and he fell back onto the examining table.

Slade's now sore jaw dropped open in wonder behind his mask.

A-amazing, Cheetah. Amazing.

He stepped down from the examining table and zipped his uniform, staring in admiration at the teen he'd almost violated. How many times did he hit me? Ten? Twelve? Was it twelve? Twelve times in just a second just after being unconscious. Amazing! He's almost unstoppable. He stared at him some more feeling a contorted version of pride.

Hmmmph. Only undone by his super fast uptake of the drug shot into him just as much as he'd been helped by his system's super fast recovery from the first dose.

He might still have violated the teen speedster. But, somehow, the flurry of resistance had changed the psychodynamics. The act had to be domination that was experienced by the apprentice. He had to feel it and know what was going on and, most of all, fight but not be able to stop it. It wasn't certain that there was any such condition for Cheetah. If he was conscious, he was almost unstoppable. He'd vibrated himself right out of the bonds. Only the cage will ever stop that. I can't make everything out of that! The modifications to his uniform should make him . . . pliable. Slade chuckled at what he was going to do to control Cheetah. But that was still only with his uniform on. He would have to devise a restraint. He would have to. Cheetah would have to experience that feeling and reorient his life around domination, just as Bird would be made to again.

"Your time will come, Cheetah," he growled quietly, patting Kid Flash's rear and then rolling the slender teen speedster onto his back. He was stepping away from the slab to go work on the filament lining of his uniform when he accidentally brushed his glove against the naked teen's arm.

Hmmph. One of the glove's razor edge extensions that protruded with the push of a button had gotten stuck in the extended position. Damn these things! Should be more reliable! He pressed at it. There! It popped back into place at the edge of the glove.

"Wait," he muttered to himself. He stared at the teen's arm. There was no cut, no mark. One eyebrow arched. I nicked him. I know I did. I felt the tug of skin against the blade. Could Cheetah really have . . . !

Slade filled with excitement. He leaned over the naked teen. He pressed the button to extend razor edges on his gloves. He swiped enthusiastically at helpless Kid Flash's bicep opening a two inch long cut. In just a few seconds, the skin closed itself and even the pink mark of a scar disappeared leaving no evidence that the teen had ever been cut.

Slade's eye went wide and there was the tingle again. His pulse raced and he felt a frenzy of excitement as he slashed at his bicep, shoulder and forearm, crisscrossing the teen's arm with the lines of razor slashes, making a crimson lattice work of sadism. And then, just a few seconds later, they healed. All of them healed. Not a single mark of sadistic joy remained. Slade's mouth watered.

"Hahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Ah Hahahahahahahahaha!" He gave a full throated laugh. Then he flayed the teen's chest and stomach, cutting and slashing till he was out of breath, leaving the teen a bloody, butchered mess.

The helpless teen started to stir and Slade jammed the syringe into the side of his buttock again, almost missing because he was watching the many cuts and gashes heal with such fascination. He bent over and stared closely at his perfect pale skin from just a few inches above. It was impossible to detect any sign that the boy's skin had ever been anything but the perfection it seemed again to be.

Slade chuckled happily to himself. Oh Cheetah, my Cheetah. He grabbed a handful of orange hair lifting the teen's head off the slab and then,

BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM,

punched him one, two, three, four, five times with nearly all his might. He let the handsome teen's bloody, swollen head drop back to the slab as he laughed delightedly. And then he roared with delight as split, fattening lips stopped swelling and showed no split, a blackening eye became perfect pale skin again. A chiseled cheekbone, bruised purple, became flawless again. A bloodied nose repaired as well.

Slade let out another laugh. "Oh, Cheetah. I had no idea how much fun you could be. I will have to study you, little Cheetah and learn all your secrets. Then I'll transfer them to me and my bird, too."

He finished with a sniff and a shake of his head and grazed a hand softly against Kid Flash's handsome face before walking away.


	11. Persuasion

Kid Flash awoke with a groan. He was lying face down on a hard surface.

"What the hell . . ?"

His head was pounding from the after effects of all the tranquilizer cocktails Slade had injected into him to keep him unconscious. He slowly sat up and held his head in both hands. He could almost feel his body working super speed, his immune system and his naturally super fast processing of toxins working on whatever was making his head pound. In just a few seconds it was already feeling much better. He took slow, measured breaths with the heels of both hands over his eyes as he let his body eliminate the discomfort.

But there was another very mild discomfort. And this was very odd. It was his uniform. His Flash system was eliminating the tremendous headache but it didn't change the weird way his uniform felt. All over his body, it was almost itchy. It'd never been itchy before. Jinx thought the inside surface was the softest, most comfortable stuff she'd ever felt. He puzzled at what might be the problem and noticed that lights had just been switched on around him. His headache gone, he felt free to open his eyes. He shut them quickly.

Pain.

Bright lights, like movie premiere searchlights, were shining at him from all directions.

"Oh! Jeez!"

But he thought he'd seen something. He crawled forward with the lights almost shining right through his lids and put one hand out. There it was. A sort of clear wall of some sort. As if he could be contained by any barrier. Hmmph. Don't they know enough to not try stupid shit like this with me? He looked down. There was no searchlight beneath him. Out of a protective squint, he could see that it was a sort of a cube that he was in, seven feet in every dimension. The walls were three parts, two sort of clear super plastic layers that looked an inch thick sandwiched around an empty middle that seemed to be filled by some kind of slightly reddish, almost clear gas.

He saw something else looking down. His uniform. It was no longer red and yellow. It was all black except for the left side of his torso which was now a golden orange. The arms and legs, gloves, boots and mask were all black. He could still faintly see the lightning insignia on his chest underneath the black and gold.

What the hell? Why take the time to dye my frigging uniform? Or to do whatever the hell they did underneath it.

He got to a kneeling position and reached for his left arm with his gloved right hand. The uniform felt so weird, it was like there were pins or pointed edges or something at regular spacing everywhere underneath it. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZT! His arm felt like a live power line had been jammed into it where he touched it.

"Yeow! What the fuck!" he recoiled from his own touch and then he heard that voice.

"You mustn't do that, Cheetah."

Kid Flash's spirits momentarily dropped and his pulse rate shot upward. He recognized that voice from the Titans case files.

Slade!.

Oh shit. Slade.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

They had tape of him in the files. It was the same sinister monotone. The way his uniform had been dyed made sense now too. He was now wearing Slade colors. He looked down at the gold side of his chest. There it was just below the collarbone, that certain style "S". Slade. Ugh.

"The name's Kid Flash," he said defiantly, standing up but shielding his eyes with one arm.

"That is your former name. You'll be called Slade Flash by the public from now on but I'll call you Cheetah."

"Don't think so. Guess again."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Tremendous pain. All over his body electricity coursed into him from his uniform. He realized why his uniform felt so odd. All the points touching his skin must be tiny electrical leads. He fell to his knees, staggered by the pain but, thanks to being a Flash, it faded quickly as the villain spoke from somewhere outside the cube in that menacing resonant monotone.

"You need to adjust yourself to the new reality of things, Cheetah. That's not such a bad name for you, now is it? You are the fastest land animal, after all. Only Cheetah senior in Keystone City can dispute your title and we Slades will get around to him eventually."

Kid Flash looked up. "We . . Slades? Are you even more nuts than you were before?"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! A shorter but more powerful jolt across his chest stopped his breathing and left Kid Flash gasping for air when it stopped.

"You work for me now, Cheetah. You will do my bidding and you may find this hard to believe but, soon enough you will do so willingly."

"You're out of whatever's left of your frigging mind, asshole."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

"Unnnh!" Kid Flash gasped at the pain, still on all fours. "Well . . . I'll . . . have to tell Jinx about you. She's Hindu. They have that whole belief in reincarnation getting the next life based on what you did in the last one. But you're proof that it's wrong. You died and came back, right? If it was true, you'd be a cockroach right now."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

Kid Flash fell to the floor of his "cage" in excruciating pain. The tremendous current sent through him hadn't been all at once, everywhere but had gone in seemingly random but distinct paths, the tremendous charges passing from his left foot up through to his his butt, across his shoulders, from his scrotum up to his neck, across the length of each arm, down his right leg and then across from ear to ear. He was left panting when the electrical torture finally finished.

"That's the way it will be, Cheetah. You will bow down before me and call me 'Master'. You have no other choice."

Recovered, after a few seconds, but not anxious for another taste of that voltage, Kid Flash slowly stood up.

"Why don't you at least show yourself? You think you have me caged here-"

"Oh, I do, Cheetah." Slade confidently purred. As a further sign of it, the blazing arc lights turned off on one side of the cube revealing the tall, powerfully built villain in his black and gold uniform with metal body armor over part of it standing amid shadows to that side. "That's a charged xinothium plasma gas between those special walls. If you try to go through it, you'll die, Cheetah. Trust me."

Kid Flash paused. Flash had said there might be some kind of barrier they wouldn't be able to go through, not any solid or liquid, but a reactive gas, maybe radioactive or specially unstable, something that would react with their molecules extremely quickly. He hadn't encountered anything but had been thinking about it.

Kid Flash stepped up and swung his arm forward vibrating his molecules starting from the shoulder. But it was different this time. Something felt immediately different. Moving his molecules through things had always produced just a slight tingle hard to describe to anyone else but he'd always felt complete control. Now his molecules were hot. His forearm, partly through the xinothium plasma, was burning up and he was panicked that he seemed to be losing feeling, like it wasn't even attached to him anymore. Frantically, he pulled and pulled, groaning with the effort at last pulling his now black gloved hand back into his cage. He gaped at it with relief that it was still there.

"What the hell! That never happened before!" he gasped, holding his arm and flexing his hand.

"You like my special charged xinothium plasma, Cheetah? I made that just for you?"

Kid Flash breathed heavily staring angrily out at Slade as Slade gloated. But his thoughts were not of defeat or failure or danger narrowly avoided.

"I can beat it! I can beat it!" he told himself. "I just have to go through at my top speed. I can't go through slow. That fucking plasma didn't mess me up right away. I had a picosecond to do it. I can do it. I just need to get up to my top speed first."

He looked at his clear plastic cage. Only seven feet across. How the hell do I get up to speed in this tiny space?

"So, there'll be no more of that, Cheetah. We can't afford to lose a valuable asset like you."

Kid Flash shook his head. "You're delusional if you think I'm ever going to help you."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! A series of charges coursed from one side of his head to the other staggering Kid Flash. It was fantastically painful, making him gasp for breath and his eyes tear and it was made even worse by the fact that he couldn't see how Slade was triggering it. He knew what he had to do. And dangerous as it was, the idea of not letting him play his usual role appealed to him. This guy got off on the whole sinister, master villain, in control personna.

"Nope. Still not gonna help you. Try again, asshole."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! A charge passed from the front to the back of his torso. His heart skipped a beat and his lungs burned.

"You will bow down and recognize me as your master," declared Slade.

"I thought you were supposed to be dead. What happened? They didn't have any copies of Teen Beat in hell for you to use to whack off to pictures of Robin's ass?"

"SHUT UP!"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

"You tried to do me, didn't you? You sick fuck. You . . with your little . . cutesy names for us . . 'my bird' and 'cheetah' . . such an obvious pedophile."

"WHAT! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! You insolent . . !"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

Kid Flash dropped to the floor, writhing in pain. But it faded quickly, both because he was a Flash and for the satisfying realization that Slade was slightly flexing his left forearm with each application of torturing charge. The trigger was in his left glove.

Then, he felt his hair stand on end. What the . .? It puzzled him for a moment then he realized what it was. His uniform being re-charged. There must be contact ends on his boots and elsewhere on his uniform. Touching the plastic cube, his cage at the wrong spots probably connected to tiny metal contact points and closed the circuit and sent fresh charge into his uniform. He gulped. This wasn't getting his buns paddled by seniors at the end of 8th grade. This was torture, the real thing.

"You and my bird are not children, Cheetah. Children do not dominate as you two do. And I have used . . f-females. I have three children. Unfortunately none worthwhile. I treated my bird as I did and as I will treat you for what it teaches you about domination. I value you because you are my proteges, my apprentices. I-"

"What!"

"You and my bird will apprentice to me, Cheetah. We will dominate. We will be unstoppable. And you will learn that the expression of your will over the populace is your true nature, that dominating is what is most natural for you, that it is the only way for a man."

"I won't do a fucking thing for you," said Kid Flash and he tensed waiting for the pain. But it didn't come.

"First, I'm going to break you. Then I'll send you out and ruin your reputation. At a certain point, you won't have anywhere to go. You'll see that the police and populace never really liked you or understood you. You'll see that their regard for you was just convenience. You were doing their bidding so they seemed to like you. Your police file already shows this. You'll realize that there's no reason to humble yourself for fools. You'll express your power and be your true dominating self and we, you, my bird and I will carve out an empire."

Slade waited. No joke? No insult? He waited. But the teen speedster said nothing. He was scanning the area around his clear cage. Scanning. Scanning.

Slade felt ambivalent. This was the sign of a stronger will than if the teen just kept mouthing off. He wanted that strength in his minions. But it would make him harder to break.

Kid Flash had hoped to find some kind of weakness, some way out of this. But there wasn't one. Then the lights were all turned out except for one small one above his cage.

The Titans'll come for me. Flash'll come for me, too. And Jinx'll bust in here, guaranteed. He could not help but think, also of what Slade might have in store for him. He thinks he's going to break me, huh? What'll he try to do? Is the sick perv gonna try to-to do me again? Is he gonna beat me? What?

He hated the idea of waiting and took a running step toward one wall of his cage and spun and gave it the hardest kick he could.

He bounced off it. It didn't have the slightest give. He gritted his teeth. Allright. Let's see how it stands up to a hundred of those, in a couple seconds.

That's what he did. Kid Flash kicked with all his might, putting his whole body into it a hundred times at exactly the same spot on the wall in just two seconds. When he was done, he stared at the wall, breathing hard but having achieved nothing. The inch thick clear plastic, of some sort, hadn't budged at all.

"Fuck," Kid Flash muttered. I'm at this psycho's mercy. What's he planning to do?

The plan turned out to be to subject Kid Flash to a lot of things. The overarching goal was to wear him down. Over the next few days, Kid Flash was never allowed to sleep. If he started to doze, massive current was sent through his uniform to keep him from sleep with excruciating pain. He was given no food or water and he was constantly agitated by Slade. He was knocked unconscious by Sladebots then immediately wakened. Knockout gas was piped in through a tiny hole in an upper corner of the cube that was his cage. And as soon as he was out, a Slade robot was introduced into the cage. Kid Flash felt like his eyes had just closed and suddently there was Slade kicking and punching him. The first few times he would fight back and quickly turn the tide and beat the crap out of the villain only to be crestfallen when he found that a face plate popped off after his 20th uppercut. From outside the cage he'd hear laughter at his disappointed expression.

It'd always been part of how he fought villains to confront them with a distorted sense of time, showing up to their right, then their left, hitting them, advancing and retreating all in less time than seemed possible. Now it was used against him. As he tired and lost the ability to muster up super speed, the whole experience was starting to blur together.

It seemed he'd just closed his eyes, alone in his clear plastic cage and then suddently a Sladebot was throwing him across it into a wall as if it had materialized out of nowhere. He tried to defend himself and got brutally beaten, punched and kicked and thrown around his cage, just a fatigued skinny teen, not one possessing super speed. He was beaten to the edge of unconsciousness then left gasping on the floor of his cage where he slumped to the hard surface and fell asleep. But only for a split second it seemed before tremendous electrical current surged through him again, leaving his whole body aching. He looked for the Sladebot, but it was gone.

There would be extended sessions of electrical torture lasting for what might have been hours, the instant he closed his eyes. At other times, some sort of gas was pumped into the cage which tremendously irritated his lungs. He couldn't draw a single breath that wasn't accompanied by a cough and couldn't rest at all for the hacking cough it gave him.

Over and over the cycle repeated. Beating. Electric torture. Gas. Beating. Electric torture. Gas. He lost all track of time and couldn't have recalled which had been done how many times. And without super speed, the pain and injuries were starting to linger.

His jaw still hurt from the last beating a Sladebot had given him when he suddenly looked up from all fours and saw another one standing right next to him. It picked him up and threw him across the cage into a wall knocking the breath out of him. He barely moved before the Sladebot grabbed him and held him up against the wall, his feet off the floor one huge hand at his throat holding him in place. It did not feel good to have all his weight held up by his throat. He grabbed at the arm trying to at least hold some of his weight on it by his hands. It leaned forward, pressing its mask to his forehead and suddenly Kid Flash realized this one actually was Slade. The single eye looked too real to be another robot. He struggled with all his might but Slade was much too strong.

"You can end all this, Cheetah. Bow down and call me your master. You can have food and water and you can rest your wonderful little body. Just call me your master."

Kid Flash struggled again, grunting and groaning with the effort to get free of the villain.

"Mastur," he finally spit out at the mask pressed to his own forehead.

Slade's eye opened wide and looked at him skeptically.

"Mastur . . bate, asshole. Go fuck yourself."

A smile curled his lips as he flew through the air to the opposite wall, thrown angrily by Slade. The smile disappeared as he blacked out with the impact.

As he weakened and his injuries mounted, he felt pain longer and longer more deeply. The torture became even more excruciating. Slade kept at it for multiple reasons. First of all, it was fun. It was a pleasure to hurt another human, especially such a pretty boy, much more handsome than he, Slade, had ever been. This was a delight. Second was the chance to test the strength of Cheetah's will. This, too, was a delight, to see how much Cheetah could take and not break. And it was an impressive display. Though temporarily resisting the wrong party, it showed what an incredible weapon Slade Flash would be in the future. And, like Robin reacting to the most personal domination, it forced Cheetah to orient himself around only a fight and winning.

But a doubt was creeping into Slade's mind. He's not showing any sign of giving in. He could be faking his condition but what if three days of starvation, torture and sleep deprivation really have left him at the brink. Killing Cheetah is such a worse result of this than having Cheetah at my side serving me. I need time.

He triggered the knockout gas to spray into the cage again. He waited the requisite minute then opened the door to the cage and gave a slight kick to Cheetah's exquisite behind. Cheetah didn't move. Good. He left a glass of water and two slices of bread in the corner of the cage. He left and waited for Cheetah to wake. When he did, he saw the food and water and crawled to it. He drank the water and ate a few bites of bread and seemed to instantly revitalize.

"I need more than that. I . . . if you intend to keep me alive . . . what I am . . . it requires that I get more. I eat more than you'd ever guess someone my weight would."

"You'll have to do things for me, then."

Kid Flash spit out the remainder of the bread in his mouth. "You'll have to kill me, then."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

"MAYBE I WILL, THEN! MAYBE I WILL!" Slade roared back at him.

"Flash . . . is gonna . . . kick . . . your . . . ass," Kid Flash tried to shout but could only mutter barely audibly.

"Oh, really, Cheetah? And how would that happen. I have your ring right here," he said, holding it up for Kid Flash to see ten feet outside the cage. "Nice little toy. Simple but effective. You won't be sending him any messages. But I've known about you and Cheetah Senior sending your little signals to each other for a while. Three buzzes at a very high frequency is your signal. So, when you were captured, a false signal was sent to Titans Tower so that they will think you're answering a call from him. There'll be enough time to persuade you."

Kid Flash laughed in between gasping for air and did his best imitation Slade sinister monotone. "There'll . . be . . time enough to persuade . . you . . . now where's that copy of Teen Beat?"

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

Slade started to curse at him but realized he was wasting his time. The first jolt of current had knocked the teen unconscious. Slade punched a wall in his fury, denting the stainless steel with the impression of his knuckles. Only telling himself that every expression of the boy's will just showed how worthwhile this all was gave him any satisfaction. He went back to study the lab results. These were very interesting to him. No tailbone? No appendix. And the most unusual DNA he'd ever seen. Slade immersed himself in the results of the DNA testing of Kid Flash's blood, paying just enough attention to the cage to send in a Sladebot at the right time to beat the hell out of Kid Flash before he got to sleep more than a wink.

All the while, in the back of his head, he was wondering how to accomplish this. Beating him and wearing him down wasn't working. He was done physically but his spirit hadn't cracked at all. The answer came an hour later when he was in the control room watching the monitors as a severely weakened Kid Flash coughed and coughed on the large screen.

Slade glanced to a smaller monitor and then smiled. "Game, set, match, Cheetah."


	12. Miss Jinx Marple

Jinx paced on the Titans Tower roof and when she got tired of that she went down to the kitchen and drummed her fingers on the counter while barely sipping tea. She didn't last more than 30 seconds between sighs. Beast Boy and Cyborg cast occasional worried glances over their shoulders at her from the great room in between games of Halo4.

As Beast Boy did a victory dance and snickered "Ha! I'm the alpha male of beta testing!", Robin approached the counter warily.

"We've checked everything."

"I know. I know."

"If he'd brought his communicator with him. We might have an idea of his location."

"I . . . He was only going to the florist then coming back. He doesn't like to carry anything. It feels weird to him. You're sure that was a signal from Flash?"

"Same frequency. Same pattern as always. And there's no place safer for Wally than with his dad."

"I know. I know. Something just feels . . . wrong. I can't explain it," she sighed and sipped her tea.

Robin put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, he's my best friend. I don't want anything to happen to him, either. I put in another call to the Watchtower. They said Flash wasn't there but they weren't sure of his whereabouts. We'll keep monitoring communications and do everything we can here. Okay?"

Jinx sighed and nodded. It was true. He was doing everything he could and Wally was his best friend. There was no shortage of motivation. There just wasn't anything to go on yet, nothing but her bad feeling.

And this was the worst . . . ever, an undercurrent of panic and feelings of dizziness whenever she thought of Wally or heard his name. She was perfectly fine otherwise but the feeling she had about him now made her sick.

She got up from the counter and nodded at Starfire's look of concern. She made her way down to the 13th floor where everyone's private quarters were. She'd already emailed Zatanna but hadn't heard back. What else could she do? She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, what the hell," she muttered. She approached the next door down from Wally's and knocked.

No response.

She knocked twice more. Hard.

"Can it wait?" Raven's voice called out from within.

"No. I don't think it can."

Jinx thought she might have heard a sigh of exasperation. A few seconds later the door opened a couple inches. There was Raven without her cloak and hood.

"What is it?"

"It's Wally. He's gone. He was supposed to be back yesterday morning. I've got a terrible feeling about this. Robin says there was a call to him from Flash that he must've answered but I . . . I just feel so certain that something's wrong. Can you help me locate him?"

Raven took a long slow breath. "He's got a very unusual aura. I-I have a hard time finding him if he's not very close by."

"Really? The whole almost all 29th century DNA thing?"

"Maybe. More likely the energy from the super speed thing . . . using a singularity, it masks his aura. That might be it, anyway. I'm not sure. He just doesn't register like other people. I'd like to help. If it was Robin, I could do a lot more. But Wally . . ."

Jinx sighed, deeply disappointed.

"You're really worried about him?"

"Yes!"

"I would trust that. With how close you are, you and he. I would trust that. Even if you can't explain it, I bet you have a link to him on some spirit level so that you can detect when he's hurt or in danger. I would trust that."

Jinx leaned on the wall by the door. "I already do. I've never felt anything like this. I feel perfectly fine but dizzy or sick at the mention of his name or if I think about him. Something's wrong."

Raven shrugged. "I don't know what to suggest. I hope you find him and that he's not hurt. Wally's . . . . kind. He's smart and he's kind. Good luck."

Jinx smiled. "Thanks." She started away and the door closed. Great. Another dead end. She went back to Wally's room and tried the phone again. She dialed the number for his adoptive dad's house outside Keystone City.

One ring.

Two rings.

The machine picked up. "Hi. This is Barry Allen. I'm not in. Please leave a message at the tone and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

Jinx sighed and there was a beep. "Mister Allen. It's me, Virginia, again. Still looking for Wally, just like when I left that last message an hour ago. Please um, please call me when you get in!"

She hung up the phone shaking her head. Gods. Could I seem any more frantic?

She turned on the laptop on Wally's desk. She checked the email queue again. Nothing new. Still a stack of pictures from Gar and something from a baseball fan site. Out of bored curiosity, she opened one of the ones from Gar.

"Dudes! Check out this babe!" said the heading and it had been sent to Cyborg and cc'd to Robin and Kid Flash. Jinx rolled her eyes. Softporn. Well, not quite softporn, a shot of Kate Moss from the new issue of Vanity Fair, nearly naked but with strategically placed arms and legs. O . . kayyyyyy. She clicked back to the icon screen then turned it off.

Jinx agonized all into the evening. Nothing was a suitable diversion. She couldn't read. She couldn't watch a dvd. She couldn't listen to music. She got an hour's time filled with a brutally intense workout in the Tower fitness center. It felt good to burn off the tension and to use the pressure massage shower afterward. But the anxiety only returned minutes after she'd toweled dry and dressed.

She tried to sleep but couldn't and sauntered to the kitchen late at night. She made a mug of hot chocolate and slowly sipped it while trying to alternately calm herself and think of a way to contact Wally.

Into the half darkened kitchen came smiling Robin and Starfire in Teen Titans pajamas and a bathrobe. She watched him embrace Starfire and her smile at how good it felt. They approached her at the counter and she got up.

"Do me a favor," she said to Robin.

"Sure."

"I'm only gonna ask this because it's right in front of Kory."

"Um . . okay," said a perplexed Robin glancing back and forth between the two super powered females.

She walked to stand right in front of him with her back to him. Robin looked at Starfire with a puzzled expression.

"Stick your arms out in front of you," she commanded.

Robin shrugged and held his arms out straight ahead, one to each side of her.

"You're the one he trusts," she said and pulled his arms down tight around her.

"Jinx!" Robin protested but Starfire was nonplussed. She understood emotional need.

"Just hold me for a minute. Okay? Just a hug. Just hold me. I get this all the time from him and I miss it, especially when I think something's seriously wrong. Okay? Just hold me."

"I . . " Robin looked to Starfire to see if she was okay with it. She nodded to him and he squeezed Jinx a little tighter. This was . . not unpleasant.

"He likes you best and trusts you. So, if I have to get a fix of this, with the rotten way I feel, it should probably be you."

"A . . fix, friend Jinx?"

Jinx sighed. "When you-when you have to have something, Kory. When it's so much a part of your routine that you feel incomplete without out it, that's a fix."

"And friend Wally's hugs are your . . routine?"

Jinx nodded and turned part way around to speak to Robin. "And if you go blabbing about this I'll . . . well, I'll do something pretty disproportionately bad. I didn't need this when I was alone or with the HIVE. Got that? I got along fine without it. But Wally . . . " she sighed. "For him it's not like a psychological thing. It's not insecurity. It's like a biological thing. He has to. And I . . " she rested her head on Robin's pajama clad arm with the warm thoughts of Wally in her head and her voice softening. "I've kinda got used to his way of things and now." She shrugged slightly. "I push it all off on him and make fun of him, but the truth is, that's how I want to live. I am not weak. Got that?" she added, power returning to her words.

"Got it."

She sighed and Robin looked at Starfire as if to ask if this was long enough. She shot him a stern look. Don't you dare walk away from her! And then Starfire stepped in and made it a group hug.

When they finally separated, Jinx turned around and gave Robin a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you."

"Um . . . you're . . welcome . . I guess."

She sauntered off to his room to try and sleep.

It might've been the worst place in the world for her to try when anxious about him. A spare Kid Flash uniform was draped over one chair. There was a stack of books that he'd been reading on his side of the bed. His Jump City Academy clothes were visible in the closet. There were his Netflix DVD's on the nightstand and a couple of his CD's under them. She knocked over his ipod as she reached to turn out the light to not have to look at all of it and then pulled the covers over her head. And she could smell him on the linens. He was very clean. But with all their vigorous lovemaking, he sweat some of the time. She could faintly smell him on the sheets. He was in every item of the room. It was Wally World. She smirked thinking of that National Lampoon Vacation movie. The movie hadn't been so hot but she loved the look on his face when she'd seen it playing on the great room tv and had made him watch. A few times, they'd used the name of the phony disneyworld like place they were going to.

Wally World.

She chuckled now, a faint echo of the belly laugh she'd had while pointing at his distraught expression. Wally World. She sighed and with one breath the mirth was gone, replaced again by worry. She bundled the covers and pillows up behind her to try and simulate his presence and did her best to sleep.

When she woke, or, rather, stopped pretending to sleep, she went right to the laptop on the desk and checked for messages from Zatanna or Flash or anyone. There were spam blocked offers to give Wally stock tips, a good mortgage rate and to enlarge his penis. She rolled her eyes. If they only knew. But there wasn't any relevant correspondence.

She got dressed and got some breakfast. Robin was already up and at the communications center keyboard.

"Anything?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing. No news from Justice League about Flash's whereabouts. Nothing from Zatanna. Nothing from Wally. I tried some police contacts, too. They've got nothing. Sorry Jinx. We're trying."

Jinx nodded and even patted his shoulder, surprised at the immense distance he'd traveled in her eyes. But she resolved then and there to go out and look around. She had a bagel and some juice and told Robin she was going into Jump City to look around. Robin made her bring her communicator and promise to call if she found anything.

Jinx remembered how proud Wally'd been about doing some real detective work and finding her at the warehouse where the HIVE boys had taken her.

"No reason I can't do a little detective work, too," she told herself getting off the launch on the other side of the bay. She remembered Wally with that look of child-like pride telling her how Flash and Aunt Iris's lessons about the Columbo tv show and questioning assumptions and asking what you really knew had led him to her. If he can be a Columbo, then I can be a Miss Marple! So, she asked herself the same question. What do I know?

He went out to pick up flowers and wasn't seen after that. Okay. Exactly where did he go?

She sighed. He'd never said where he bought flowers for her. He didn't seem to want her to know how much of his Teen Titans stipend he was spending on her. She walked along the street to a gas station a couple lots down from where she'd crossed the bay. She asked to use their phone book and tore out the yellow pages for florists when they weren't looking. She stuffed it under her black lace and walked out inspecting them just down the street.

"A hundred fricking listings. Great. A hundred fricking listings to go through."

Some of the things firehair'd bought seemed very unusual, probably expensive. So, she decided to start with the ones in the chi-chi Jump Green district of the city. It was less than a mile away. As she walked along on her platform heels, in her blue and black lace with her pink hair tied by two black ribbons. She got a variety of responses. There were sneers at some young punk bitch strutting along. There were leering glances and outright ogles of the hot, confident babe. And there were fearful stares at the powerful sorceress who was once a badass villain but now supposedly ran with the Titans.

She walked past a women's shoe store and a giant Nike store to a small flower shop not half the width of even the shoe store. The middle aged woman at the register blanched at the sight of her. Jinx noticed and tried to be friendly.

"Um, hi. Kid Flash? Does he come in here?"

The woman just stared and a young guy in green apron over a pink button down shirt approached.

"This tall," said Jinx holding her hand at just over five feet ten inches. "Red red hair, really orange, to tell you the truth. Blue eyes . . . Incredible body . . . Red bottom and yellow topped skin tight suit? No bells going off?"

The woman just stared.

"I've seen him!" said the guy.

"He buys flowers here?" Jinx asked breathlessly.

"Well . . . no but I've seen him around here. He stopped at the corner and looked around last week. And he patrols the neighborhood where I live a lot." His eyes lit up and he unconsciously licked his lower lip. "Wow. I won't vouch for the fashion sense but, still, wow!"

"Yeah. Allright. Wow. Um, he's not on your team. Okay? So stop revving your engine. I own everything you saw. He's mine. I'm looking for my property. Does he come in here to buy flowers and if not, do you know where he does?"

The guy gave a fastidious little sniff and pointed weakly to his right. Try Garibaldi's down the street."

"Thank you!" she said emphatically and started out of the shop, slowed by having to weave around a couple incoming customers. Her departure was just slow enough to hear his nasal muttering of something about ". . both fashion victims . . "

As she stepped out onto the sidewalk she heard him yelp at the misfortune of a vase dropping on his head. She made her way down the street of the expensive shopping district, past some gawking tourists and the usual rich, hipster neighborhood crowd. She walked confidently into Garibaldi's Flowers. The help there were standing around doing nothing and all seemed to recognize her in a positive way when she entered.  
"Jinx? Ohmygod! You're Jinx aren't you? Oh my god! Jinx is in our shop!" chirped a guy with carefully maintained bed head hair. His two coworkers approached equally enthusiastically.

"What can we do for you, Ms. . . Jinx?" smiled a short blond one.

"I'm looking for a certain redheaded boy, so redheaded that he's actually got orange hair."

"Mmm hmmm!" smiled the third guy. "And does this redheaded guy happen to wear very tight clothes?" he giggled.

"Only to work."

"The buns!" gasped the first one to the others who snickered into their fists.

"Um, look. He's not on your team. He's been approached by people in our business on your team and-"

"There are gay superheroes?" gasped the blond one.

"Who?"

"Who?"

Jinx shook her head regretting having mentioned it. "Look. I'm not gonna drop a dime on anyone. The point is that Kid Flash is not. Trust me. I have first hand knowledge to the contrary."

"Not just hand, I bet." snickered the blond one.

She stared him down.

"Aqualad, right? It's Aqualad! Isn't it?" asked one of the others.

Jinx maintained her poker face. How the hell'd he guess?

"He sets off the gadar."

"Mine too."

"Kid Flash? . . . no. I mean, I wish. But Aqualad!" he finished with a laugh.

"Whatever. I came her to ask if you've seen my boyfriend. Does he come in here to buy flowers?"

"Oh my god. Wouldn't that be fabulous? Him just standing right there!" he said and pointed to the area in front of the cash register.

"Yeah. Fabulous. Whatever. He doesn't come in here, does he?"

All three sheepishly shook their heads.

"Do you have any idea where he's been buying flowers?"

They suggested she try Pistil Packin' Mama's down the street. Jinx walked into this shop, a larger one with a big poster by the door of hippies adorned in full lates 60's flower power attire. She was relieved just to not be set upon by more gay guys, but the intensity of the stare of the large middle aged woman at the register started to make her feel no less comfortable.

"And what can I do for you my colorful little perennial?"

"Um, I was wondering if you'd seen my boyfriend."

"Ohmygod! It's Jinx!" came a gasp from the back of the shop. A skinny guy in his early 20's with bleached blond hair bounded up to her followed by a guy a bit taller and a couple years older. She saw a guy in the back of the shop shake his head and say something to them followed by the taller guy giving him the finger.

"That's your style Mike, not mine," he snorted before exiting out the back.

"What's a Jinx?" asked the big woman at the register.

"I'm Jinx."  
"She is!" seconded the blonde boy bouncing from foot to foot in place.

"Look, I'm trying to find Kid Flash. He's-"

"Oh! That's where I've seen you!" the woman nearly shouted. "I saw your picture with him in US Weekly! What a handsome boy!"

"Yeah yeah. He's handsome. He's hot. Yadda yadda yadda."

"No!" the blond guy complained. "You can't yadda yadda yadda Kid Flash! He's a super hero. That face! Those eyes and those cheekbones! That body! The package and those buns!" he let out a shriek of laughter and sculpted Kid Flash's rear in the air in front of him. "Thank god for spandex," he giggled.

The taller guy shoved him away from them and cast a caustic look at his co-worker. "We're not all like that. Don't think of us all like that, prancing little wussy boys like Jeremy. But Kid Flash is very popular. Not just for. . . you know. But because all of us knew, I mean, word got around, that Kid Flash patrolled our part of the city more than others."

"I know. He told me."

"He did? I mean, so it wasn't wishful thinking or just our perception?"

Jinx shook her head. "On one of our first dates he told me. It was very . . endearing."

"Why?"

"Well, he said that with all his speeding around the city he'd become familiar with the way the cops used their manpower. And he didn't like it. He said they overpatrolled the rich neighborhoods on the north side and underpatrolled the ghetto areas and the gay district. So, he patrolled extra in those places."

The guy nodded his head slowly. "I knew it. This-this guy I know who lives in a mansion on the north side was shocked when I said we see Kid Flash go by a couple times a week easy. He said his kids would give anything to see Kid Flash in person but they never have. They were all upset that that one black kid they showed in the papers with him and Robin has gotten to meet 'im like 10 times."

"Well, he doesn't always let himself be visible, but sometimes he runs just fast enough to be a blur so that everyone sees him and knows he's there, kind of as a deterrent."

"Hey, I'm on the job. So don't try anything!"

"Right."

"He didn't mind that people might think he was being extra nice to us?"

"Nah," she chuckled. "He did notice the looks he gets but he kind of shrugs it off."

"He always seemed more comfortable dealing with us than some of the others. Robin and Beast Boy caught Plasmus on the corner near my apartment once and they looked at everyone around them like we were radioactive. Your guy looks people in the eye and shakes hands and talks to 'em normally even if they're gay."

"He's really really social. And he's not a hater. Even if he's not on your team, he's not a hater. He's . . . ," Jinx sighed without ever finishing the sentence. "I have to find him. Something's wrong. He's missing and I have this feeling that something's wrong. Do you know where he bought flowers?"

"They were always for you, weren't they?"

Jinx nodded. "He's very into the little gestures."

The guy nodded. "Jeremy!" he shouted to the bleached blond boy who rushed to his side from the back room.

"Jee-zus. What is it?"

"Didn't I overhear you saying on the phone that you'd been emailed pictures of Kid Flash? You were talking about sending 'em along to that Malcolm. I heard you."

The blond boy raised an eyebrow suggestively and nodded.

"Somebody took pictures of him in a shop and emailed 'em to you?"

"Well . . . yeah."

The guy leaned forward insistently. Give.

"Well, he wasn't supposed to be taking 'em. I mean, the clientele isn't supposed to have to worry about phone paparazzi. He could get in trouble. But it was Kid Flash, so-"

"Jeremy! Who? Which shop?"

"He won't get in trouble, will he? I was supposed to keep it secret."

"Jeremy. She's trying to find him. Kid Flash went out for flowers for her and is missing ever since."

"Oh! I didn't know. It was Tony at Flower Power, over on Leitch Street."

Jinx said thanks to both and they both wished her good luck in finding him. She walked briskly one street down and then one over to a side street where the Flower Power shop was located.

She was nice enough to not let slip in front of Natalie, the owner, that Tony had taken phone pictures of a customer. She asked if Kid Flash had been there at 9:30 two days ago. Natalie said that he had. She described the flowers he'd picked up. She said he'd gotten them and left.

Jinx asked if she saw anything at all. Had anyone approached him outside the shop?

Natalie shrugged and sheepishly admitted that Kid Flash was such a common presence at the shop that she didn't pay any extra attention to him any more. She said she hadn't seen anything. Jinx asked the guy, Tony, if he'd seen anything. He also said that it was weird how normal having a teenage speedster in that uniform in their shop had become. But he admitted he hadn't seen anything.

Jinx puzzled a few moments at what else to ask.

"What vehicles were here that morning? Cars? Delivery vans? UPS? FedEx? DHL? You remember anything?"

"Nothing special," said Tony. "The usual customers. No pickups till after 10 I think."

Jinx nodded. She had wanted so desperately for some big clue to come out of this but she had to just smile and thank them and walk away.

What now?

She walked slowly along the city streets trying to think of what to do next? What had Wally done when he'd hit a roadblock? She tried to remember and bumped into other pedestrians as she walked along lost in thought. At last, an idea came to her and her stride both quickened and lengthened. Twenty minutes later she was walking confidently into a building she never thought she'd enter except in cuffs. Jump City police headquarters. She got some shocked looks from cops and other personnel but ignored them and made her way down to the computer room in the basement. Wally'd told her that there were two people in that building with whom he was good friends. Winston, the guy who was sort of the super hero liaison on the 6th and Shirley in the computer room in the basement.

At first, when she presented herself at the desk, this Shirley greet her with stonefaced skepticism. But after she said this was for Kid Flash, Shirley offered to get her any information she could. Jinx asked for records of motor vehicle reports of any kind. A few minutes later, a computer printout was starting and 10 minutes later the laser printer had finished.

Jinx thanked her and walked away to the police headquarters parking lot where she leaned on a wall and pored over the printouts.

"Gods this legwork shit sucks! They never talk about this shitty side of the hero deal, do they?" she muttered to herself. At first she flipped pages almost randomly but then she decided to focus on infractions involving vans or delivery vehicles. There were all kinds of parking tickets and tickets for double parking issued in the last few days. She kept flipping.

"Ahh! That's a bit more interesting," she said noting a report of a burnt out van found about a mile away. The printout seemed to indicate it'd been taken to a junk yard not far from there.

Off Jinx went, grumbling about leg work. At the edge of the junk yard, she could see a burnt out van. As she approached it, a rotweiler on a heavy chain barked ferociously and went straight for her. She turned and faced it, pink cat eyes glowing with menace. The dog stopped in its tracks and retreated amid wimpering sounds. Jinx neatly somersaulted over the chain link fence and inspected the van. Almost totally burnt out. No paint, nothing for identification. Even the glass over the VIN number was melted so badly that you couldn't read the number. She popped open the hood and checked on the engine block. Sure enough, there it was stamped into the metal of the engine. She scratched it into her printout and cicled the van again. There was a little paint left below the passenger door. Red and yellow. DHL.

Jinx happened to know where their Jump City distribution center was, not far away and walked briskly to it. She asked to see the manager and the guy at the desk told her he was out. She explained what she really wanted and the guy glanced around. He nodded okay and started navigating the menus in the computer system. He spoke to her without looking up from the monitor on the counter.

"I got a daughter who likes to dress like you. Goth is what they call it?"

"Yeah."

"I hate it. But, you know how it is. If I push her away from it. She'll only run right to it. So . . ."

Jinx posed as he took her picture with his phone camera.

"Allright. You got a VIN, a vehicle identification number?"

Jinx reeled off the many digit number. The man punched it into his computer. He tried a few more clicks, made a few faces then turned to her. "Nope. That's not one of ours. Never was."

"Not in other states?"

"I've got our entire U.S. fleet in the database. That was not a DHL vehicle."

Jinx nodded and thanked him. She stopped outside in the street.

Why do that? Why pretend to be a DHL van when you're not? Maybe you want to blend right in at a business that has a lot of pickups and deliveries? Okay, where would I dump a van and burn it? Hmmm. A bit away from my place but not so far that I risk more and more people seeing me.

From the hill on which she stood, Jinx gazed over to the area full of warehouses south of there. She walked over there, again at a brisk pace, and looked around. She wasn't sure what she should be looking for. Who'd try and jump somebody as powerful as Wally? The HIVE seeking revenge? Somebody those french courts let go after the brotherhood of evil had been caught? She couldn't fix her suspicion on any party. But whoever it was would be high powered. They'd have a serious frigging hideout. So she started poking around some of the larger warehouses. She was still doing this when she realized she hadn't gotten back to Robin at the Tower. She pulled out her communicator and flipped it on.

Hmmph.

It didn't work. The signal was all scrambled. That was odd. She'd never seen that happen before. She heard a small sound from somewhere up high on the warehouse roof. She felt a pinprick at her butt and instantly started feeling dizzy.

"Fuck!" she shouted as she fell and caught herself against the side of the warehouse. She threw out a powerful hex out of blind rage as she felt herself sinking into a fog. She grunted a vow to stay awake, to save Wally, but she could do no more and fell unconscious.


	13. Slade orientation

It fell right into his lap.

Slade chuckled at the incredible good fortune of it. Right into his lap. One moment despairing that Cheetah might die before he cracked and groaning that, unfortunately, the dominant ones were like that. Bird was. They couldn't let you beat them. They couldn't stop fighting.

One minute despairing about amazing Cheetah being wasted resisting and the next . . . and the next, there was the answer! There she was on one of the security monitors, Cheetah's mate, the pink haired witch snooping around outside the complex, all hourglass shaped f-femininity. He quickly turned on the turret by the building corner, the one hidden by the rain pipe from the roof. He zoomed in, the crosshairs on the computer display, getting closer and closer to one round feminine buttock beneath blue and black lace.

He sniffed in displeasure then pressed the button.

Zith!

She cursed and reached back for the tiny projectile as she staggered a few steps forward. She leaned unsteadily against the wall of the building, cursed again and let loose a tremendous burst of hex energy that tore right through a foot thick concrete pad beside the abandoned, or apparently abandoned, warehouse. She then slowly dropped to the ground in the crushed stone beside the warehouse's concrete walls. She didn't take the drug into her system as fast as Kid Flash had. She remained sitting upright a few moments then gradually leaned over. Her eyes gently closed on the monitor screen.

Slade smirked and pressed the controls to fill Kid Flash's cage with knockout gas. A smile curled one side of his mouth beneath his mask as he walked past Kid Flash lying face down in his clear plastic cage.

"Your own chosen weakness, Cheetah. Your own chosen weakness," he half taunted the unconscious teen.

Slade went outside and collected the sorceress. He brought her inside and made preparations. He hadn't expected fortune to shine on him so brightly. But he was ready to improvise and get the most out of the circumstance in which he found himself. He hadn't achieved his feared status by standing around when opportunity presented itself. He set up the restraints and the suspended animation aparatus and the poison and all the regulating and triggering equipment they required. It took a couple hours to set everything up. But that was okay. The teen speedster was so completely exhausted. He just lay there, not moving, for 10 hours straight. That was enough time to prepare Jinx and to study Cheetah some more.

Slade couldn't resist. The more he found out about the teen speedster, the more his curiosity was piqed and the more he wanted to know. The DNA results were fascinating. The mitochondrial from the mother said one thing while everything else said something different. Some of the protein sequences on fragments were extraordinary. And the boy had no tail bone or appendix and never had. How intriguing.

Slade was thankful that he had the most advanced DNA analysis equipment on the planet at his hideout. He went from computer to computer speaking out loud to himself the results he was observing. "But the mitochondrial doesn't show it! It doesn't make sense! How can some of the blueprint for Cheetah say one thing and a portion of it say something so different!"

And he took the time to pass an unconscious Kid Flash through his special MRI machine getting better results than any hospital would in 40 minutes in just 30 seconds. This too provided data that only made Slade want to find out more. He had a momentary thought of what a scientific career could be made out of the boy. The papers. The new theses on genetic design of muscles, blood sugar utilization and adenosine triphosphate conversion. The boy was a career in the flesh for one of those sorts, the sort who finds out something and rushes to tell everyone else. Slade sniffed contemptuously remembering his time studying medicine. Those acclaim seekers who just wanted a reputation. How many of them would know what to do with any advance in knowledge? Almost none. A real man would take that information and use it to dominate. Slade nodded at the obvious truth of his thoughts and squinted at another slide of teen speedster blood under the microscope. Hmmph. A theory began to form in his mind.

Hours later, Kid Flash awoke in a seated position, but leaning back and supported. He groaned. Even with an extended sleep, He was so weak and groggy, and almost disoriented by some sleep. It separated from his continuous resistance so that he didn't even think to wonder how he was held up leaning slightly back in a seated position and whose arm that was around his chest. Without a word, food was brought to his lips. He could smell it. He slowly chewed without bothering to open his eyes. A glass of water was brought to his lips. He drank. The sequence was repeated several times. Vitality returned His senses sharpened with each bite chewed and each sip. He was given more to eat and to drink. He awakened more completely. The voice that went with the arm around his chest spoke in a deep monotone.

"Good."

His eyes opened wide as he was taking a long sip of water. He saw that it was a black clad arm holding him up.

"Ahhh!"

He jumped to his feet, suddenly remembering everything that had happened to him. Faster than the villain could react, Kid Flash spun out of his grasp and started swinging away, pummeling him with punches by the score. Though much bigger and stronger, the villain could scarcely respond to this super speed attack, punches jackhammering him back. The hundred forty seven pounder punched a dozen times past an arm raised by the two hundred forty seven pounder to block the first of the blows. And he easily dodged the attempted punches of the villain. The cumulative force of all his blows knocked the villain back again and again. And just as he felt he was running out of gas, Kid Flash threw one final right. With it, he knocked off what must have been the face plate of a robot. Circuitry was visible beneath.

A sinister laugh rang in his ears as he gasped for breath. It came from the sound system piped into his clear plastic cage.

"Not entirely unexpected, Cheetah. And I must say, very impressive. You're stronger than I would have guessed to dispatch my robot so easily. But now you must serve me just as obediently as that mechanical facsimile."

Kid Flash turned toward the control room.

"I . . already told you . . never."

"Ah, but there's a new element in the equation, Cheetah," said Slade and Kid Flash could practically hear the smirk that must've been there under his mask. And then the darkened area to one side of his clear plastic walled cage was suddenly lit, revealing another clear plastic walled cage right next to it.

Inside it was Jinx.

"No!" he shouted. "Leave her out of this! Leave her alone! She got away from you people! Let her go!" And with that he proceeded to pound on the inch thick clear super plastic walls of his cage for a full minute with punches and spinning kicks at super speed. But it was to no avail and he ended up panting and leaning on the walls staring at her, restrained on a metal slab at a 45 degree angle with a series of metal and leather straps across her legs, arms and neck and with what looked like a giant needle poised at the pale gray skin of her temple in a mechanical arm.

Kid Flash's head hung down disconsolately. This was now a complete nightmare. Her too. Her too! She must've come looking for me. Caught for being a hero for trying to save me. God.

It took him a minute to gather his thoughts and get past the emotional despair of her being captured. He knew where this would go from here. But he tried to set up the terms first.

"Let her go and I'll do anything you ask," he offered softly. "Just, please let her go."

Slade laughed. "And where would my leverage be then, Cheetah? Oh no. You'll do as I say because you don't know where I've got the trigger that will send that lethal injection into her brain. Is that understood?"

Kid Flash ground his teeth together but said nothing.

"Is that understood?"

"Yes," he answered wearily.

"Yes . . . what?" asked the menacing monotone.

"Yes . . . . master," Kid Flash spit the last word out and Slade smiled behind his mask. One wall of Kid Flash's cage opened.

"Come here, Cheetah," commanded Slade. Kid Flash walked slowly to the villain standing by the door to the control room. Slade shocked him by patting his head when he was within reach in a gesture that was a reasonable facsimile of kindness.

"You're really worn out, aren't you?"

Kid Flash looked straight at him and nodded. His expression was furious.

"I wasn't sure if you were faking it to attack me."

"I told you! I have to eat a lot just to keep up. If I've missed three days of meals, I've missed about 21 meals. That's a week without food for most people."

"You'll get all the food you need, Cheetah. I have so many questions for you. I've been analyzing your blood results, your DNA and the special MRI I did of you when you first came here and-"

"I didn't come here. You brought me here. You kidnapped me. And now you're extorting me."

"Only until you come around, Cheetah . . . and you will. And don't get any silly ideas about freeing her. Her cage is made of the same special plastics of my own design sandwiched around charged xinothium plasma as yours was. You can't vibrate through that one, either. As for the trigger that'll send that dose of poison into her and kill her while she's suspended in unconsciousness, guess."

"Guess what?"

"Oh, I know you'll try Cheetah. But guess. Is it just a simple trigger on my person? Is it triggered at the cage or in the control room? Maybe it's controlled by a loop of high frequency signals that will send the poison into her if it's broken at any point, on my person or in the control room. Maybe it's something else, a voice signal from me, perhaps? You don't know, do you? You might kill her with any attempted rescue of her or attack on me. Might you not? Keep that in mind, Cheetah."

Kid Flash looked at him with eyes burning with hatred but only sighed. He returned his gaze to her and didn't stop looking at her till Slade pulled him out of the room backpedaling slowly.

"Follow me, Cheetah. There are full meals waiting for you."

"Is that an order . . . master?"

"Yes. It is."

Kid Flash was led to a smaller room past the control room where he was fed. And Slade watched him eat. Not a word passed between them as Kid Flash ate two more full meals. Then he told Kid Flash to get cleaned up. He led him to a shower room like a health club shower room with no individual stalls. Kid Flash peeled off his black and gold Slade colors uniform and showered. And Slade watched him shower as he fiddled with his uniform. He watched him put back on his no longer electrified uniform. He told Kid Flash that the wiring was almost worn out anyway. He hadn't expected to send so many charges through it. Besides. He had a better way of controlling him now. His eyes darted off to one side in the general direction of Jinx in her cage. With this oblique referense to her, Kid Flash wanted to go see Jinx again. But he started down the hall that way but Slade had his arm and wouldn't let go. He made Kid Flash go with him to his state of the art lab and sit as he conducted some more tests on his blood and some more DNA tests. Kid Flash looked around at the equipment, fantastic stuff, very reminiscent of the equipment in some of the S.T.A.R. Labs rooms but oddly out of place in the concrete and iron surroundings of the unfurnished, undecorated lab.

"What time is it?" asked Kid Flash as Slade looked through a microscope at some teen speedster red blood cells.

"It's 9:47 p.m."

"What day is it? See, I-I kind of lost track receiving your hospitality here," Kid Flash asked with a bitter half smile.

Slade looked up from the microscope, apparently finished. "It's Friday, Cheetah."

"Three and a half days of your gentle persuasion."

Slade spun on his seat to face him. "Yes. And you were still holding out till she came along. You see what she did? She made you weak. She made you vulnerable."

Kid Flash shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Look at you. An almost unstoppable physical force and you can't do anything, because of a f-female. She weakened you Cheetah. She turned you away from strengthening your powers, didn't she? She made you content and soft. "

Kid Flash shook his head with contempt. "You don't know what you're talking about. You-you think you're on top of everything. You act like you've got all the answers and you don't know jack."

Slade stood up menacingly.

Kid Flash stood up, too. "Go ahead! Hit me, zap me, whatever! What good will it do you? You already have the hammer with the threat of killing her. You-you think you have the real story. But real life is going by somewhere else. You're stuck in this stagnant, stinking little eddy pool and you act like you know the truth about things in the roar of the main current. Bull! She didn't make me weaker. She made me stronger. We have different strengths and we give each other our strengths. I'm-I'm twice as strong for being with her. Maybe not in a whack job, rule the planet way that'd matter to you but every other way."

At the end of speaking, Kid Flash was certain that he'd get his ass kicked in some fashion, but Slade surprised him by only walking to a position from which he looked down at him and patting Kid Flash's now black clad shoulder.

"Your loyalty is impressive. I value loyalty. It's a very good character trait. Would you like to see how some of those to whom you were loyal regarded you?"

"What do you mean?"

Slade spun around and picked up a thick file off a granite counter.

"The Jump City Police Department, the people whose calls you answered . . . . what was it?" he asked and then flipped through the file to a certain page. "Ah, yes, a hundred fifty seven times without fail. Do you think they were loyal to you or do you think they regarded you as being as disposable as a flashlight battery or a cigarette lighter? How about a look at your file, Cheetah?"

Kid Flash said nothing. Slade held out a three inch thick file folder to him which Kid Flash grudgingly accepted. He had his own suspicions of what would be in it. So many of the police had been embarassed at skinny assed little Kid Flash doing their job for them at first. And then there were the ones like Captain Doyle who had an inkling of his powers as he matured and regarded him with fear.

Kid Flash stepped back and sat against the edge of a desk as he reviewed the thick file.

"Where'd you get this?"

"Where do you think?" asked the deep monotone voice. "Police headquarters are, paradoxically, some of the easiest places in the world from which to steal things."

Kid Flash sighed flipping through it. It was all copies, but Slade couldn't have faked this. There was too much detail and the commentary from Captain Doyle and others seemed too real. There was even a recounting of his conversation with her and Captain Brennan, a recounting that must've occurred in a parallel universe. In that one, he'd been "loud" and "abusive" and "unhinged" not simply a wiseass. But the file was full of more than one sided accounts of conversations. It had pages and pages of security camera photos with time date stamps and maps of the city all attempting to establish how fast he, Kid Flash, could run. There were pages of recountings of things he'd done after being called to help. They had pages of commentary about his other abilities, creating cyclones and vibrating through walls accompanied by ominous sounding assessments of how dangerous he was.

Yet, at the same time as he was being described as "an imminent threat to the lifeand limb of every citizen of Jump City", there were calls to utilize him more. Kid Flash sniffed at this. He glanced up to see Slade watching him intently almost with a smile. He ground his teeth in anger at himself, realizing that he'd read the first half of the file in a couple seconds.

"You can read super fast, can you Cheetah?"

He avoided eye contact and sighed. "Yes."

"You read all those pages leading up to that one? You didn't just flip through them?"

"Yes! I read them. Alright? I can read . . "

He didn't say it. He shook his head and sighed and returned his attention to the file. There was a memo from Winston, the guy he dealt with at the Jump City Police suggesting that they were calling on Kid Flash too often. He said that they were reflexively calling for him when the need was marginal and that because he was just a teenager, they should go easy on him. The response was a direct order to put out calls for Kid Flash any time there was the slightest possibility of needing his help.

"The City and the force shouldn't have the slightest hesitation about burning out some pretty boy teenager who's little more than an anonymous vigilante in a unitard. He's not union."

Hmmph. Not union. He kept reading. There was some back and forth commentary after he became a Teen Titan. Some in the force, like Officer Strickland, said it showed he wasn't dangerous, that a few wiseass remarks here and there meant nothing. The Titans had never been dangerous. They had a spotless record of serving the city. But the file closed with more memos from Captain Doyle warning that he was "still extremely dangerous", with a "pattern of self indulgent judgement exemplified by choosing not to bring in for arrest his girlfriend, the metahuman Jinx." "The City ignores the threat posed by this extremely powerful boy at its own peril," she said in closing.

"They don't appreciate you much, do they, Cheetah?"

Kid Flash rolled his eyes angrily. "I don't do things for their appreciation. I-I do them because they're right. If I, if I looked for appreciation from anyone, it'd be Flash or Robin."

"Ah, your best friend. Is that true? That's what the papers say, that you and he are best friends."

Kid Flash nodded slightly. It was so obvious what the guy was trying to do, to drive a wedge between him and his hero life by playing up his grievances with the way he'd been treated. He would have liked to have cut the whole spiel off by showing him that he didn't have all these unacknowledged grievances. But he couldn't.

"Tell me about that. That fascinates me that you and my bird should be best of friends."

Kid Flash made a face of displeasure at his use of the term "my bird". "What's to tell. We get along well. We enjoy each other's company."

"Right from the start?"

"No," he frowned. "We hated each other at first,"said Kid Flash almost offhandedly and then he flinched. He heard Slade chuckle.

"Reallllllly Cheetah? You hated someone then came to like him?" His voice was all silky malevolence. Kid Flash ground his teeth together knowing what potential parallels the villain had in mind.

"We had-we had the wrong idea, each of us, about what the other was really like. I thought he was a jerk and he thought I was a flake."

"A flake, Cheetah? Really? Why?"

Kid Flash sighed. "Is this necessary?"

"Is the pink witch's life necessary?"

A murderous glare was followed by another angry sigh and then eyes caset downward. "My-my speed . . . when I run . . . it-it causes chemical processes in me . . . I-I feel a kind of euphoria. Sometimes I haven't completely reined it in and I've sort of kidded around. That's what Robin saw and thought was me not being serious about my job. That and he didn't know all I'd done."

"Interesting. And why did you think he was a jerk."

"Jeez! Never mind. It's none of your business," said Kid Flash turning away to show that he didn't want to continue the conversation. But then he felt a tug at the back of his neck. For a second he had trouble breathing as Slade's huge hand lifted him off the ground, first by the throat but then just the back of his super tight, super stretchy uniform. He was left bouncing slowly up and down suspended humiliatingly in the air. He hated when the larger villains did this. Gorilla Grodd, in particular loved to do this on those rare occasions when he got his hairy paws on the teen speedster, bouncing the top of Kid Flash's head off his giant ape fist like he was playing paddle ball before throwing him somewhere..

Slade leaned in close to the suspended teen hero. "It's my business if I decide it's my business. You are my subordinate, Cheetah. If you don't accept that, you can just accept that your precious girlfriend died because you couldn't. Understand?"

"Yes"

The single eye continued to glare angrily at him.

"Yes . . . master." barely passed gritted teeth.  
Slade put him down quite gently, actually, then wrapped an arm around his much smaller shoulders in an almost fatherly gesture. Kid Flash glanced sidewise at him, creeped out. What was this?

"Cheetah. You're going to go out tomorrow and you're going to rob certain targets which I will identify. And you're also going to take a certain amount of revenge on certain people. You're going to announce to the world your new allegiance."

Kid Flash sighed at the thought of all his efforts as a hero being thrown away. All his dedication would be disregarded. Doyle and Brennan will get to tell everyone that they knew I was dangerous all along. All my work down the fucking tubes . . . !

He was lost in despairing thoughts of the imminent destruction of his reputation and barely noticed Slade steering him over to the other side of the room where the computers and DNA analysis equipment was.

"You don't think some people deserve something back for how hard things have been for you, Cheetah?" asked Slade moving a step away to the DNA equipment.

"Yeah. But it's not my place to mete out punishment to everyone who was an asshole to me."

"And there were a lot of them, were there?" asked the deep monotone behind the mask.

Kid Flash shook his head and faced down as if speaking to his boots. "I shouldn't tell you anything, but yeah. It was real hard before I joined the Titans. Everything in my life turned to shit because of being a hero. And I had to let bigger kids smack me around a couple times and let seniors haze me and I had to put up with cops talking down to me despite my trashing my own life to answer calls. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Slade nodded.

"Why help them?" asked the menacing monotone. "Why save them if they don't appreciate you? Look at you, Cheetah. If I set out to design a boy for speed and was allowed to do anything with bone and muscle I think I would end up with you. They couldn't appreciate you Cheetah?"

Kid Flash sighed. "Look. It's part of the deal. Sometimes you're not appreciated. Sometimes people make it harder for you to do the job. We all go through it. Robin's got the same stories. But, what, you think I should just use my powers to get my way and make everyone do whatever I want 'em to do, huh? You think I should just kill anyone who gets in my way?"

"A crude summary, but not inaccurate," purred the voice behind the metal mask.

Kid Flash shook his head. "You're like the guy in . . . . have you ever read about those experiments in game theory where they have two people in a room and they have to choose to split some money or to ask for all of it. If they both ask for all of it, nobody gets anything. If they both ask to split it then they both get a certain amount. If one asks for all of it and the other to split then the guy who asks for all the money gets some of it but not all. Have you read bout those experiments?"

"No. I've never heard of game theory Cheetah. I needed for it to be brought to my attention by a 15 or 16 year old boy," said Slade in a patronizing tone.

Kid Flash stared. Sarcasm?

"Well, the best way to make money is to be cooperative. If one guy starts asking for all of it every time then that's what the other guy does just to screw him back. The way to succeed is to work with other people. But your whole outlook on life is like the guy who always asks for all of it."

Kid Flash waited. Again, he was sure he was going to get his ass kicked. He couldn't fight back and Slade knew he couldn't. He could see the single eye behind the mask narrow into an angry squint. Any second now. Any second.

But Slade did nothing. He stared, the look in his one eye betraying that kicking Kid Flash's ass was certainly being contemplated. But he did nothing. Kid Flash looked at him in surprise.

"The analogy falls apart Cheetah, when you consider that the fools in the experiment all had an equal claim to getting money. It was just a matter of how they put forth that claim. Whereas, in the real world, you or . . Robin certainly have a more deserving claim on recompense than some fat doughnut bloated cop behind a desk just plodding toward his pension."

Kid Flash stared. He didn't think to argue the point.

"Why didn't you hit me?"

"Did you want to be hit Cheetah? I've seen how quickly you heal from cuts and bruises and all sorts of things. Do you disregard all minor pain?"

"No. But . . ."

"I'm not stupid, Cheetah and I'm not shortsighted. Now tell me about what you do."

Kid Flash sighed.

He tried to give out as little information as possible. But Slade was shockingly brilliant as a scientist. He'd figured out so much on his own that had take a team of S.T.A.R. Labs scientists to realize. Slade understood that he wasn't powered by conventional digestion of food. He was desperate to find out how he was powered. What kept him going? Where'd he get the energy? He told him that neither he nor Flash knew exactly what was going on inside their bodies and tried to leave it at that. But Slade kept pushing, kept questioning. And he was even more persistent about DNA. He asked what his relation was to Flash and was surprised to be told that they weren't related. He correctly guessed that the DNA of his body now reflected his physical status as a Flash.

"You're not his product?" asked Slade with a skeptical stare.

Kid Flash denied it. There was no way he'd tell him that Professor Zoom was his biological father. He could just imagine Slade's delight at that news. He'd never let that one go if he found out. Ahahahahah! You're a villain, too! You're destined to be on this side! You're destined to express your will over the populace! It's in your blood! Ugh. He could imagine the whole line of bull he'd spew.

The other theory that he pushed was that someone had designed him, had manufactured Kid Flash as a genetic experiment. No tailbone. No appendix. He cited a half dozen other oddities that had shown up on the MRI's.

"If you're not Flash's boy, then someone made you to be like that, Cheetah. If I was designing a boy for speed, you're what I'd produce. Tremendous calves, thighs thick front to back but not wide at all to keep hips narrow, the most powerful gluteals, pound for pound on the planet, a tiny waist widening to good shoulders for the deltoid and lat muscles as well as to allow for large lungs. And not a spec of fat on you. You're a perfect use of mass, Cheetah, except for . . . that, of course," he pointed.

Kid Flash made a face of displeasure at the whole monolog, even more so because Slade had pointed at his crotch.

"Seriously, Cheetah. You're even more ridiculous than my bird. Did the pink witch do that to you?"

"What!"

"You don't have a wasted ounce anywhere else. Did she make you ridiculous to scratch some otherwise unreachable feminine itch?"

"She didn't do anything to me. I'm ri-, I mean, I'm this way on my own."

He sighs staring at the villain to make him go on to another subject. He'd like to not have to dwell on this psycho having seen him naked a few times now and how much the whack job liked it. This once, it worked. Slade moved on to more questions about his digestive system. Did he process foods super fast? How does he see things moving at high speed? How does he prevent sonic booms from happening every time he runs faster than the speed of sound? And on and on the questioning went in the lab room two floors below the floor of the warehouse. Kid Flash answered some of it directly. If it seemed harmless to let Slade know, he did. He couldn't keep everything from him. A couple times when he said he didn't know, Slade vaguely threatened Jinx's life. He had to give him some information about himself. He was so fricking persistent. He made Kid Flash sit there through hours of questions about himself and his body, so much that Slade accepted it when he finally rebelled.

"Look! I've told you everything I know. I don't understand exactly what happens inside me! Alright! There was an accident and I became Kid Flash. I don't know what the story is with my parents. The-the man I think is my father might not be. If he's not, I don't know who is! I don't know! I don't know why I heal super fast or why I don't have a tailbone or an appendix. I don't fucking know. I know what I am and the things that I can do and that my-my abilities are reliable enough that I can take them for granted. But, I can't explain them. And I don't think I can give them to anyone else. So, you're shit out of luck, pal."

He sat there breathing hard and staring angrily at the one eye behind the metal mask. The eye stared back. He could almost feel himself being measured by the eye, weighed and assessed and judged. The villain's commanding calm was scarier than the few emotional moments he'd had when torturing him. Always integrating the big picture of some demented scheme into the every moment was scarier. It was like a chess player looking several moves ahead at all times. That player was less likely to make an exploitable mistake than the guy who blew up at being called out on his fascination for Robin. That player might never give him a shot to free beautiful Jinx.

"That's enough for now," the deep monotone finally declared, breaking the silence. "You'll sleep in your cage tonight, Cheetah. And tomorrow you'll start announcing to the world on which side you now fight. You've got a busy day ahead of you, at least a dozen robberies and some other . . . activities that I've chosen for you."

Slade stood up and motioned for Kid Flash to get up as well. He started for the doorway but Kid Flash didn't follow.

"After tomorrow, you have to free Jinx," he declared.

"No Cheetah. Any possibility of your returning to your previous activities has to be destroyed. I don't think that can be done in just one day. But it won't take long. You'll see. The world will forget the stupid sacrifices you made on their behalf out of a mistaken conception of things like that!" He snapped his fingers. "They'll turn on you and when they've turned enough that they'll never take you back, then we'll talk about the pink witch."

Kid Flash stared at him. A moment later he nodded. But in his own mind he wasn't agreeing. He couldn't have disagreed more violently. But he too had to play several moves ahead, if he could. He felt certain, there was something in the way that Slade had explained it, a certain odd fraudelence in the tone of even the menacing monotone when he said that, then they'd talk about Jinx. He's going to kill her. He's going to kill her no matter what. He fears her and he fears the two of us together. He's going to kill her.

He walked beside Slade down the concrete corridor out to his cage. Slade was saying something to him about realizing that the world didn't really care about him, that they just used him. He didn't care. All he could think of was Jinx and that he had to be smart for her. He had to find a weakness, to find a flaw in this psycho's plans to allow him to free her. He barely even noticed Slade patting his butt as he opened the door to his cage and ushered him inside, where a mattress, pillow and blankets were somehow waiting. He stepped inside and pulled off his uniform at super speed and jumped under the blankets, not giving even a hundredth of a second for Slade to see him.

The lights turned off and Slade made his way to the control room. He extended the connection from his glove to the computer console and downloaded the footage from the tiny camera beside his mask of the entire three hour long conversation with Kid Flash in the lab room. How many times had Cheetah lied? A third of his responses? Half of his responses? He pressed the play button with the rewind only halfway done. There was the handsome face, eyes so bright blue. But the eyes looked up and to his right before the boy's voice slightly stuttered declaring that he didn't know how any more about his origins. Slade smiled beneath his mask. "Cheetah, I'm going to take apart every statement you made and see which ones were lies. And after you're first series of thefts, we'll have another long discussion. And then we'll fill in all the blanks. And we'll unlock your secrets."

Slade nodded and sniffed. It was probably to be expected. He's not stupid. At this point he still thinks he can go back. Slade sighed. He probably thought that quick nod fooled me, too. Such quick agreement. Hmmph. Slade turned back to the screen to analyze all his responses.

In his cage, Kid Flash was near tears. He lay on his side staring into the darkness toward where he thought Jinx was being held. Gonna be forced to betray all that Flash taught me and still, he's gonna kill her, he kept telling himself. He's gonna kill her and I can't stop it. He's gonna kill her and make the whole fucking world fight me till I can't do anything but run and steal. He forced a sigh to try and dissipate the horrible feeling of despair that filled his thoughts. The most beautiful creature on earth and she needs me to protect her and . . . . . He sighed at his feeling of helpless. He ran it through his head a hundred different ways, the cages, how she was restrained, the poison right there at her temple, the impossibility of knowing where the trigger was that would kill her. And somehow, at the end of it an image of her came to his mind of her beautiful face beneath him in bed, eyes pink and bright with confidence and pleasure, mouth curled in a delighted smile. It was so odd to have such a pleasant thought in his head. But those were the images her name inescapably carried with her in his mind. Another fleeting picture from his time with her was of her lying across his bed in the half light, looking so beautiful and somehow delicate there, her slender body with its pale hue that would have fooled someone into not realizing she was one of the most powerful creatures on the planet, as gorgeous and vulnerable as she may have appeared. But the image that settled was of her in the library at Titans Tower, sitting across the desk from him. The two of them had been reading their separate books. He got to the end of a chapter of Eliot and glanced up at her. Her face was completely given to focus on the text and it might've been the most beautiful she'd ever seemed to him, not just Jinx enjoying, but Jinx being challenged and succeeding and mastering a difficult text, and enjoying that. Jinx triumphant. She finished her chapter and looked up with a smile that only grew wider when she saw him looking at her.

He took a deep breath and felt his resolve become granite. Even if it meant getting every molecule of his body ripped apart, he'd save her from this fucking psycho.


	14. Slade Flash

For once, Kid Flash woke up the way Robin had always advised him to get up, instantly alert. From the first moment he heard sounds, his thoughts immediately turned to his predicament and a total focus on saving Jinx. He slid halfway out from under the covers of the bare mattress in the clear super plastic cage and saw Slade already standing there watching him from 20 feet away. He stared back at the menacing villain. They had a contest for a full minute before Kid Flash turned away then got up and pulled on his uniform at just faster than normal speed, with his back to Slade, facing Jinx's cage, almost explicitly saying he didn't care about Slade watching.

"Good morning, Cheetah," said the deep, menacing monotone with almost a note of enthusiasm to it.

"Good morning . . master," said Kid Flash softly but not looking at him, only staring at Jinx. She didn't look harmed lying there on a 45 degree incline in her cage. But her restraints and the mechanism that would kill her with an injection into her brain on Slade's signal, looked unharmed also.

Kid Flash stared at it, memorizing the appearance of every strap holding her, every metal or glass surface that almost brandished poison.

"She's fine, Cheetah. She's in a sort of low level suspended animation."

Kid Flash said nothing. He just kept staring at her. But he couldn't focus his mind on straps and bars and needles. His thoughts were of trying to live without her. And they didn't get far. Life without her was . . impossible to imagine. No beautiful Jinx face, those lips and those cat eyes? No luscious little Jinx breasts? No fantastic round Jinx buns? No long Jinx legs? No Jinx smiles. Sigh. Her smile. No Jinx jokes. No Jinx love. No love. No Jinx. How the fuck do I-?

"Cheetah!" A large gloved hand tugging at his shoulder in his new mostly black uniform accompanied the menacing voice and interrupted his thoughts of loss. It was a great feat of self control that he didn't reflexively turn and pummel the villain. Slade pulled him away and led him away from the large room where the cages were to the small room where he'd been fed before. There, Kid Flash ate six bowls of cereal. It seemed weird to see an item so commonplace as a box of cereal in a Slade hideout. He doubted that the Total people would be call looking for Slade's endorsement.

As he ate, Slade explained what his first target was to be, the Jump City Bank main office downtown. The vault was expected to have a spectacular amount of cash according to email traffic Slade had intercepted, perhaps 11 million dollars. He spread a blueprint of the bank's layout on the table next to Kid Flash's bowl of cereal as he continued to silently eat. He outlined the usual security procedures of the bank, where guards would likely be and where alarms were. He started talking about the vault door but then stopped and smiled.

"Doors don't really mean much to you, do they Cheetah?"

Kid Flash shook his head as he chewed a mouthful of cereal. Slade noticed the complete focus on the teen's face.

"You seem very intense this morning, Cheetah."

"Well, I can't always be happy go lucky like when I'm being tortured," he deadpanned.

Slade gave a slight chuckle, surprising Kid Flash. "Just see that that focus is on accomplishing your assigned task and in the manner I prescribe. Because, if you don't return with $11 million and without anyone following you here, if you bring your former teammates or any police of any sort, the pink witch dies. Is that understood?"

"Yes . . master."

"Now come here, Cheetah. I have a little retrofit for that uniform of yours."

Kid Flash obeyed and found himself seemingly in a headlock.

"Ow! That hurts. What the hell are you doing?"

"As I said, Cheetah, just a little retrofit. I'm attaching a small camera to one of your little wings. And then I'm going to attach a little microphone and speaker as well, so that you can hear my commands and occasionally reply."

Great! He can check up on me. Just what I want, supervision by a psycho. Kid Flash sighed with disappointment but had to endure five minutes of being bent over, seemingly held in a headlock by the much larger villain. Finally, he was let go. He made his way over to the glass door of a darkened room and looked at his reflection. He could only see a dark dot not more than a sixteenth of an inch across on the wing beside his right ear to indicate that a camera was there. He couldn't feel any additional weight. Suddenly, in his right ear was Slade's voice from the control room.

"The picture quality is excellent, of course. Can you hear me, Cheetah? If so, respond with the word 'dominate'"

Kid Flash rolled his eyes. " . . . . . . .Dominate."

"Gooood. Just keep this in mind, Cheetah. I'll be watching you. And if I can pass along information to help you in your thefts, I'll use it for that, too."

Kid Flash could only sigh acquiescence.

At 10:00 a.m., the main office of the Jump City Bank, largest single bank office in the city, was a bustling scene. There were two score customers waiting in line, filling out slips, making withdrawals, deposits, transfers, inquiring about loans and mortgages, everything people do at a bank. And there were a dozen employees behind counters and at desks in the elegantly appointed rosewood and gold plate decorated main office. Watching it all were three armed security guards. They were the first ones to notice a dark blur come into the main office from the street in just a fraction of a second and then somehow materialize into a slender but fantastically athletic teen clad in a tight black uniform with half the chest gold orange. The teen's hair was orange, too.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" he shouted at the top of his lungs to be heard over all the activity. "I'm . . . Slade Flash and this is a robbery!"

While all the customers turned to see the amazing teen shouting this and exclamations of shock erupted all over the bank, the three guards all reached for their weapons. All came up empty after perhaps seeing a flash of black in front of them. When they looked up in disappointed surprise at the athletic teen who'd announced the robbery, they saw him holding all three guns in one hand.

"Not fast enough guys. But, don't worry, I'll take care of 'em," he said and as the customers and staff watched, he seemed to pass one black gloved hand right through the barrels of the guns over and over as he held them with his other hand. Finally, he stopped and everyone could see that the gun barrels had melted and fused together. He let the useless clump of metal drop to the carpeted floor with a thud.

As instructed, he slowly walked the length of the bank as he spoke now, letting every customer and staff member get a good look at him. He felt a bit ridiculous. He didn't just displayed himself like that working as a hero. But Slade had demanded it. So he walked to the far end of the bank and back as everyone inside stared at him and listened as the teen speedster spoke.

"I'm going to take the money in the vault. I'm not going to take your money. I'm not going to hurt you unless you get in my way. I'm taking the money because . . because I'm entitled to it. I'm . . your . . superior."

One hefty guard seemed to take offense at this and rushed at Slade Flash like a linebacker with a deep grunt. As the customers and staff watched, Slade Flash deftly stepped aside of the guard's bull rush and then a black blur seemed to surround the guard as he hurtled through the air. The guard landed on the carpet with a muffled yelp, bound in his own plastic handcuffs at the wrists and ankles.

"Anyone else wanna try?" shouted Slade Flash, looking around the bank. No one came forward though they could see that the teen speedster must've weighed less than a hundred sixty pounds. And though they didn't step forward to try and fight him, first one guard, then a second later, the other, was surrounded by a black blur and dropped to the floor bound at the wrists and ankles. Just as that was happening, a loud thud then some metallic clicking sounds were heard from the direction of the vault. Slade Flash glanced with a smirk at the desk of the man who he knew, from his briefing, had the vault closing control.

"You really think that door's gonna keep me out of there?"

Before the three piece suited manager could answer, Slade Flash disappeared, a faint black blur leading away from where he'd stood toward the vault. The woman at the desk closest to it saw a black blur head right into the shiny stainless steel surface of the vault door and then disappear. Ten seconds later, another black blur burst out from the door and into the floor area of the bank. The super speedster stopped there, as instructed, so everyone could see him. He turned around slowly so that they all got a good look at the black and gold clad teen robbing the bank with his two huge gym bags stuffed with cash.

"Thank you for being obedient everyone. I'm Slade Flash. So long!"

And with that, customers and staff were left staring as the black blur that vaguely defined the teen's movements went right through the bank's plate glass window and away through the streets of downtown Jump City.

Slade was waiting when Kid Flash vibrated through the wall of the warehouse and then went leisurely down two levels with his twin black bags of cash in the elevator. He waited beside a large square table eight feet on a side and nodded slightly when Kid Flash put the two bags down on the table.

"Good job, Cheetah," he said with a pat of his butt.

Kid Flash spun around and stood with his nose almost against the metal mask the villain wore.

"The gesture can be innocent, too, Cheetah. Your former teammates, Robin, Toad or Tin Man never did that?"

Kid Flash sighed heavily. "Nothing seems innocent from you."

Slade patted the top of his head. "You'll have to lose that instinct for challenging me, Cheetah. You might dominate fools like those people at the bank but I'm above even you. Aren't I?"

" . . . . . . . . . . . Yes . . master."

And just to drive the point home, Slade patted his rear again then ordered Kid Flash to count the money. In less than a minute, Kid Flash separated and stacked the bills of various denominations and pronounced the total take as "ten million eight hundred thirty two thousand four hundred fifty seven dollars".

It was not yet ten thirty in the morning. Slade quickly outlined the plan for the robbery of another bank. And Kid Flash sprinted out to do as required. The robbery of the bank was again, rather simple. He could have done it almost invisibly, sped in and taken the money and sped out. But, per Slade's orders, he had to speak to everyone and parade across the bank making himself as visible as possible and let them all see him. Advertising your new affiliation was all it was, said Slade. It felt like exhibitionism. He wasn't supposed to be wearing the uniform for that. But then he wasn't supposed to be wearing it to rob banks, either.

After that, he was dispatched to a jewelry store, an art gallery, two very rich private homes and finally another jewelry store. Each time, Slade had detailed information about what security measures there would be, where to find the special multicarat diamond or sought after painting and behind which wall the safe could be found. It all went without a hitch. It was tremendously easy for him. And Slade kept harping on this as he prepared him for each successive theft. It's easy, Cheetah! They can't stop you Cheetah! They were spitting in your face for your helping them and look how effortlessly you can dominate them if you wish! Look how effortlessly you can take what you want! If they possess things so lightly, so haphazardly, only for the lack of your whim to take them, Cheetah, do those things really belong to them and not you? Kid Flash didn't respond.

At the end of the last robbery, black clad Kid Flash sprinted back into the hideout then let himself drop down, vibrating through two floors so that he was beside by Jinx's cage. He stared inside inspecting her and the apparatus around her in minute detail. She was still unconscious, kept so by the IV drip into her arm. But her expression was clearly not indicative of a happy slumber. And this gave Kid Flash hope. She was so powerful. He and his bed had been torn up by the effects of her nightmares. If just a little of her power could radiate out and degrade the restraints and the poison injector poised at her temple . . .

Kid Flash strided rigidly over and stopped in front of Slade. He removed the straps of the backpack from around his shoulders and handed it to Slade. Slade nodded slowly, looking down at the six inch shorter speedster and patted his head.

"Good work, Cheetah," he said in his typical deep menacing montone as he ran his large hand through the bag full of diamonds. "For your next task, you will take a revenge that you have denied yourself."

Kid Flash just stared at him blankly. Slade watched him a moment then shook his head. "Look at you! It's pathetic what so called hero life has done to you! You're one of the most powerful beings on the planet a living force who can collapse space and time. And you let yourself be humiliated in order to hide that fact. I tell you that you'll pay back someone who wronged you and you're so committed to a so called hero's self denial that you just stare at me without emotion. Do you love justice or rules, Cheetah! Justice or Rules!" shouted Slade at the top of his lungs though he was just a foot from Kid Flash.

"So . . . you think you pursue justice?"

"That's right Cheetah. I certainly don't pursue rules written just to bind the best and prevent them from taking what's theirs. Those able to dominate all around them should do so. That's justice. Now tell me about the first time you were humiliated to maintain the fiction that you could not dominate all those around you."

Kid Flash sighed. "Alright."

So, he told him. It had happened about a month after he'd become Kid Flash. With his new super speed, he'd had to quit the sports teams he'd played on. Some of the older kids who'd seen the terrific stringbean athlete he'd already been as their protege didn't like that. A couple weeks later, he started wearing supersized pants and shirts and a knit hat everywhere to hide exactly what his body had become and the memory of his unusual hair. To the kids a few years older, he was a deserter to the stoners or freaks or some other group. And they didn't like that. They started making fun of the book reading and other nerdy things that Wally did that they'd overlooked when he'd also been a young star at baseball, football and swimming. And pretty quickly the abuse escalated from words to deeds.

One day he was walking into school reading a book on chemistry, to figure out something that had happened in a case when he and Flash had apprehended Mr. Element, when suddenly the top of the page ran into one of a group of the 8th grade football players blocking his way. Wally had looked up and apologized. They hadn't listened to his apology. They grabbed him and pushed him down onto the narrow, three foot high trash can by the entrance. One of them accidentally pushed Wally down. He pushed and pushed and to the roar of laughter of the gathering crowd of kids, ultra flexible Wally ended up with his butt down near the bottom of the trash can. Only his head and feet, with the soles of his sneakers facing upward were above the rim. He pleaded angrily for them to let him out. But they and everyone else just laughed at the ridiculous picture it made. He pleaded some more and they responded by pulling his hat down over his face to reduce the volume. He wanted to use his new Flash ability to vibrate through things but couldn't give away his secret. He wanted to punch out those jerks but, not quite twelve years old and five foot two, he didn't even weigh a hundred pounds yet with his 18 inch waist. There was no way he could fight them and win without conspicuously using his new Flash abilities. And his control of those abilities was still a bit sketchy. So, Wally could only sit there folded in half like that, burning with anger as he waited for a teacher to come along to help him out while kids filed by laughing and slapping his head one after another.

He told Slade a generalized version of the events. Would he like to get back at those guys? Oh yeah. He understood why Slade offered it. He wanted him to see how easy sweet revenge was for a villain. No silly self denial there. Someone does you wrong? You get even. Period.

So, Slade Flash went sprinting up to a large house where a big party was taking place. It was like a scene out of a John Hughes film as dozens of kids, aided by a keg and a 300 watt stereo system enjoyed themselves at a huge house in a rich Jump City suburb. Slade Flash zipped invisibly through the party, only a couple half drunk kids noticing the black blur that passed by and looking at their drinks quizzically. Finally, he found them, with drinks in hand by the pool out back, the two ringleaders, Chad and Todd. He stopped amid the shrubs at the corner of the house to settle on one option. Finally, with a chuckle, he did. He watched for a minute waiting for the right moment. Then Todd left the pool to go to the bathroom, followed by Chad.

Five minutes later, kids drinking in the upstairs hallway heard loud noises from one of the bedrooms. They opened the door to find Chad and Todd, thanks to a tube of super glue, apparently engaged in the kind of mutual pleasuring that they'd often accused smaller, nerdy kids of liking. And all their frantic efforts to separate themselves from the disgusting position that they didn't understand how they'd ever gotten into only sounded like pleased moans to the crowd of kids who looked on from the doorway and took phone pictures. The fact that the door was slammed shut just after that, apparently by a big gust of wind, and couldn't be opened, made it impossible for the two jocks to save their reputations or even attempt an explanation or to try to show that each had super glue on his lips and . . elsewhere.

Slade Flash ran back to the hideout smirking to himself but still somehow feeling guilty. They deserved something like that. They'd probably messed with a lot of other kids besides him. But Kid Flash would never have done that. He'd have thought about it but never done that.

He zoomed back to Slade's hideout and took a long look at Jinx in her cage as he entered. Slade called him away before he was ready to walk away. But he thought maybe there were minute differences. Were her restraints as perfectly smooth and shiny as when he'd first studied them? Was the poison injection mechanism as perfectly new in appearance? He realized he might be tricking himself but he thought something might have changed.

Reluctantly, he answered Slade's call to him and made his way to the control room. There, Slade informed him that he would have no other missions that day. It was 9 pm now and he hadn't eaten except for a snack between robberies since breakfast. Slade gave him some more food and while he ate reviewed video footage on the control room's large screen. Kid Flash demanded, again, that Slade free Jinx. The villain almost casually demurred. He said the job of completing the switch of sides wasn't nearly done. But progress was being made, he noted. Before he sent Kid Flash off to sleep, he showed him footage from the local tv stations and the national news channels. One after another, they blared lines about Kid Flash having turned evil and having joined Slade. They talked about all that he'd stolen. And even though it should have been so easy to hypothesize that he was the victim of extortion, none of them did. They told the viewers he'd gone bad and then busied themselves with how many robberies, how much had been stolen and some glimpses of bank and store footage.

Kid Flash could not help but show his disappointment and Slade pounced. He had a hand on the teen speedster's shoulder and told him that the people for whom he'd sacrificed so much hadn't cared about him at all or understood him. He should separate himself from them as quickly as they did from their allegiance to him. Kid Flash just stared at him wondreing how he got into such a nightmarish situation that he was committing robberies for a psycho villain who was trying to woo him over to the frigging dark side.

When he went off to sleep in his impenetrable cage he second guessed himself that maybe he ought to have shown some slight vulnerability to Slade's message. But mostly he thought about Jinx. She came looking for him even though Slade sent that fake signal from Flash. She somehow knew that I was in trouble. She could sense it. And when the lights were turned out, he still knew that she was just 20 feet away. If she could sense how much trouble I was in from Titans Tower, maybe she can somehow hear me now. Burn it all, Jinx! Everything around you, hit it with hex energy! Destroy it! I might have a way to save you and me both, but I need your help. Throw out waves of hex energy, Jinx! Do it!

At Titans Tower, the Titans were returning from a battle in the south Pacific with Professor Chang. Robin immediately checked things at the communications center. Cyborg was approaching the command console when he clearly heard Robin mutter, "Shhhhhhit."

"What is it Robin? Still can't find KF?"

"Uh, no, Cy. That's not the problem anymore," says Robin. He typed a word, pressed a few buttons and said, "Look at this feed from the Jump City Bank."

Cyborg and now Starfire and Beast Boy watched the giant screen as an orange haired speedster in a skin tight uniform of Slade colors, mostly black but also gold on half the chest.

"Um . . . that looks like Wally . . ," began Beast Boy

"In Slade colors!" gasped Cyborg.

"Robin!" cried a shocked Starfire. "Friend Wally must have been forced to do this! " she cried out.

"Wally would not do that! He would not! He enjoys the happiness of others!"

"I know, Star!"

"Um, where's Jinx?" asked Raven.


	15. Neither can you

Kid Flash had the worst night of sleep of his life. It was filled with nightmares about Jinx. He was at her funeral. He saw the casket. He saw the headstone with her name. And everyone blamed him for her death. Why didn't he do something? How could he let Slade kill her? The other Titans had nothing but scorn for him.

In his dark reverie he pleaded to everyone at the services that he'd done everything he could. But no one would listen to him. Other heroes looked the other way when he passed. Worst of all, Flash and Robin were ashamed of him.

He woke in a full sweat and still felt tired. Slade made him shower and then as he ate breakfast gave him his next assignment. Nominally, it was to take a certain armored car's cash and bonds. But he was also to fight the Teen Titans. Slade noticed that he stopped eating. It had seemed a little odd to Kid Flash that he hadn't seen any of them patrolling yesterday but maybe they were off somewhere else around the world. Slade had only one instruction in fighting them. One at a time. Don't go one against five. Go one on one. And, he reminded him, remember that Jinx will be killed if you fail.

Slade Flash took the contents of the armored car as instructed and brought them to the hideout. As Slade expected, this brought out the Teen Titans. They patrolled across the eastern part of the city looking for their former teammate. Slade Flash spied on the streets from inside buildings, vibrating effortlessly through plate glass windows to watch from concealed positions. He saw a few people go saying something about just seeing the Titans and decided to check in the direction from which they'd come. He almost hoped he never came across them. The idea of fighting his teammates almost made him sick.

He came upon him from behind, skinny little Gar. No butt little Gar. God how he'd laughed, after Dick and Wally had made fun of him for it in the showers, when he'd found out that Wally couldn't wear regular pants. Who's got a problem, speedo? Skinny little Gar. He was looking down the street in the other direction. Kid Flash sighed. He knew what the villain play was. Attack him when he wasn't looking. Knock him out before he could change from skinny little hundred five pound Gar into some gigantic beast that even a hundred of his punches wouldn't faze. He knew it but he couldn't do it. Gar could be annoying and he didn't seem to read any books at all, never mind the specific ones Wally liked and he only liked action movies with non-stop explosions. And he never stopped prosletysing for vegetarianism. But, despite it all, he liked Gar. He really liked him. He was comfortable around Gar. Gar liked being greeted with hugs. And, one night, Wally had finally given in and played Gar at his favorite video game, the two boys had laughed and competed for hours, so many hours that they fell asleep side by side, slouched in a horizontal position on the couch. They woke to find two blankets over them and a note, in Jinx's handwriting, that read "Wally (heart) Gar". The other titans all laughed at their surprise from the vantage point of the kitchen.

"Uh, I'm Gar, not Gar-TH," Gar had complained. "That's not how I roll, dudes, not even for him," chuckled Gar. "Do-do I even have to say 'not that there's anything wrong with that'? Is that played out?"

Wally had smiled.

Gar was his friend. He knew the right play. But he couldn't do it. He sped around in front of his pal the shape shifter as he heard Slade's furious voice in his ear.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ATTACK TOAD, CHEETAH! ATTACK HIM WHILE HE'S HIS PATHETIC LITTLE SELF!"

Beast Boy stopped at the sight of Slade Flash.

"KF! What are you doing? Give it up and come on back to us, dude!"

Wally just shook his head. Over his right shoulder, he wrote in message on the dirt covered side of a plain white van, in a tenth of a second, so that Gar could see it but Slade couldn't from the camera on his ear wing.

HE HAS JINX.

I HAVE TO CAPTURE YOU.

I'M SORRY.

Playful Gar became a huge, snarling, 20,000 pound triceratops dinosaur that charged at Slade Flash. Slade Flash easily evaded its three horns as the beast crashed into the van but sped around his now 10 ton pal trying unsuccessfully to figure out a way to attack him. He punched at Gar's leathery hide to no avail. Gar charged at him again but it was comically easy for Slade Flash to avoid getting gored on Gar's three horns. Still, what could he do to that beast? It was hard to figure because there were things he could try, like snapping a power line and electrocuting his massive green opponent, but how much electricity would knock him out and how much would kill poor Gar? He didn't know. So, he tried to get Gar to morph.

Slade Flash sprinted to a local firehouse and ran back with 200 feet of fire hose that he instantly connected to a hydrant. He sprinted at the green dinosaur and turned on the hose, filling its nose and mouth and threatening the beast too slow to get away from the speedster with a fire hose with drowning.

Gar morphed. One moment he was a three horned dinosaur. The next he was a 30 foot long boa constrictor slithering along the now puddle covered city street at Slade Flash. But Slade Flash was too fast for this second reptile, as well, and grabbed it just behind the head. Before the huge serpent could wrap itself around the slender speedster, Slade Flash ran down the street a block and tied the boa around a streetlight pole and an iron gate. Just as Gar was about to morph again, Slade Flash punched the green serpent atop the head a score of times. He didn't punch hard, but hard enough as the serpent's eyes rolled shut and it went limp. In a split second, the snake was replaced by skinny little Gar in his purple and black uniform with his arms around the pole and his legs on the gate.

"Goooood!" declared the menacing voice in his ear. "Now bring him back!"

Wally sighed and picked up his teammate and pal, draping his body over his shoulder. He wasn't that hard to carry. He sped back to Slade's hideout and took the elevator down to the "secret lair" level.

Though he'd triumphed, he didn't feel the least bit celebratory. It was his pal Gar, annoying, innocent Gar, Gar whom he hoped would find the right girl. And here he was giving Gar to Slade. He almost turned around and brought Gar back to Titans Tower. Who was he to decide whose life had what value? Who was he to decide that Jinx was worth a Gar plus a Kory plus a Cy plus a . . . whatever? How could he assert that his girl's life was worth more than any other? Dick loved Kory. Wouldn't he say that hers was the life to be protected above all others, not Jinx's?

He lay Beast Boy down on a table and was so immobilized by his ambivalence that he just stood there while Slade placed Beast Boy in some sort of tube he'd apparently prepared for the occasion. It was set up against one wall with a plain metal bottom half and a mostly clear hard plastic top half. Once set in there with wires or lines attached to him, Gar looked almost like he was sleeping. Except Kid Flash knew he wasn't. He was in some sort of suspended animation at the mercy of a total nutcase who thought he should rule the world.

Slade returned to a somber Slade Flash. He patted his head.

"Good work, Cheetah. But not surprising. What is Toad compared to someone with your power? You dominated him," said Slade trying to cheer him up. At first he just looked down and shook his head.

"You've got to release Jinx, now!" he demanded.

Slade didn't seem the least bit unnerved by the repeat of this demand. "Not yet, Cheetah. Not just yet. There's more to do. After the others are dealt with as well."

"The others too?" Kid Flash complained.

"Of course, Cheetah. Especially my bird."

Kid Flash's head dropped into his hands. "I-I can't do that."

"Don't be stupid, Cheetah. To say can't is to make a statement about ability. You are able to capture them if you do things right. Are you trying to tell me that you won't? Are you trying to tell me that you refuse to do what I say? Tell me now," said Slade, raising one gloved hand and spreading its fingers. "Among the other triggers for killing her is one in my glove. Tell me that you won't do what it takes to prevent her death and I'll end the pink witch now!"

Kid Flash felt weak. And afterward he felt almost sick at betraying his teammates. But her death was now. It would've happened right then and he couldn't have stopped it. Maybe-maybe something could be figured out to save them. At least, that's what he told himself so that he could bear his own actions.

So, he went out into Jump City again. He used his speed to spy on them from a distance. The Titans were making a sweep through the city. He knew the team's patterns. He knew how Robin liked to methodically eliminate grids on the map as potential locations of hideouts. He figured Robin'd probably try and have them all maintain visual contact. They must know that Gar was missing. They knew that they had a better chance fighting him as a group instead of individually. So, Robin would try and keep formation tight as they worked their way through the city searching for him and for Slade's hideout. But it's really hard to keep a group together when some of the members move much more easily than others due to their powers.

Slade Flash watched and at the precise right moment, as she was flying hard to the north while Robin and the others had momentarily doubled back to the south, he sped at Starfire and stopped in her field of vision. She saw him from the edge of the roof of a long, low building in an office park.

"Friend KF!" she called out and flew down to the parking lot in front of him.

"Whatever has happened, we will help you, orange haired teammate! We will help you." she pleaded.

He stared at her breathing hard but not doing anything. Slade's voice in his ear was apoplectic with demands that he attack.

And he did.

After a nearly whispered, "I'm sorry. He has Jinx," he burst at her at top speed. He punched her hard. Though she was slender and apparently delicate, she was immensely strong, a powerhouse just a little less strong than Cyborg. He hit her over and over, her arms just starting to be raised in defense, till she started to pass out. He jumped to catch her and he questioned the ridiculous incongruity of making sure to catch her, but only after punching her thirty times. As with Gar, he laid Kory over his shoulder and started back to Slade's hideout, feeling ashamed of himself and ignoring Robin's voice over her communicator lying there on the pavement. He'd hit a girl and not just any girl but a teammate who was a good friend. After he lay her down on the table in the hideout as he'd done with Gar, he could not watch her being taken care of by Slade and sank to one knee beside the table. He ran a black gloved hand through the orange hair that spilled out the top of his uniform.

What am I doing! What the fuck am I doing! I hit a girl! I hit a girl! I took advantage of her trust in me and her caring for me. Oh god.

Slade turned around at the sound of his protege vomiting on the floor beside the table. He finished setting up her containment tube and approached the slender, black clad teen leaning on the table for support. He reached and grabbed the tight black uniform at the base of the slender teen's throat and spun him around then lifted him in the air.

Whack!Whack!Whack!

He slapped him across the face three times. "Get your head on straight, Cheetah. If you want to feel sorry for a f-female, I suggest you direct such wasted emotionalizing toward the pink witch and remember what will happen to her if you fail! Is that understood?"

"Yes . . . master," Kid Flash grunted through his constricted throat.

Slade tossed him to the ground. "Now get back out there!" he ordered. "And keep to the same strategy. Individual confrontations."

Kid Flash heard these words over his shoulder while staring at Jinx in her cage. He stared several moments more, minutely inspecting all the apparatus around her, restraints and poison injecting mechanism especially.

"Go, Cheetah!" bellowed Slade. "Go and succeed or she dies!"

Kid Flash left feeling even worse than after capturing Gar. With that reluctant success, the rationalization had to be that Jinx was more valuable than his green pal. It was harder still to justify choosing a single life over two. And it wasn't going to stop there. Where was it going to stop? Would the sick fuck even let her go if he did capture all of them. He wouldn't, would he? He'll kill her or just keep using her to control me.

He filled with despair. He still didn't have much of a plan. Just a couple of almost disconnected ideas. All he could do in the short term was to avoide her certain death and hope to figure a way to beat him.

So, he went back out and sped about the city as furtively as possible. At last he located the remaining Titans on the north side of the city near some giant liquid natural gas tanks and a rail yard. That was almost perfect. The LNG tanks were so huge, they forced the group to split up a bit to cover the area. There she was alone beside the tank on one end. He swooped in toward her even though she was shielded by a sphere of black energy ten feet across. He couldn't get at her right away, but he could separate her from them. So he picked up the sphere and ran his fastest, carrying her to a sand covered lot 20 miles south of the city in just over a second.

"Azareth Metrion Zinthos!" she called out and created a huge black hand that tried to capture him but he was too fast and kept dodging the attempts of the giant hand to close about him. He segued from running away from the hand to running in eccentric circular patterns around her, not being predictably at any particular spot but constantly whipping up air and sand around her. She was blinded, seeing only a brown haze outside her protective shield. Then he started attacking her shield, first with high speed kicks and punches that weren't strong enough to do much more than shake her a bit, then he seemed to have severed a power line, for she felt huge jolts of electric current at unpredictable intervals and locations but the attacks all coming extremely rapidly.

"Azareth Metrion Zinthos!" she tried to move away from there but found the tremendous air pressure the speedster had formed effectively pushing her back. She tried sending out more fists and this seemed to slightly diminish the frequency of his attacks for the necessity to dodge them. But she couldn't seem to get hold of him. Finally, with her powers split into both fists and a shield, she felt another surge of current. Perhaps her shield was slightly weaker. True or not, he somehow got through.  
"I'm sorry," he said almost incomprehensibly fast and punched her a dozen times, knocking her out.

His emotional reaction this time was diminished from having felt the pain already with Gar and Kory. He was numb to his own shame. He gingerly lifted Raven over his shoulder and sped back to the hideout. Slade was nearly ecstatic. Kid Flash was shocked to see him clap his hands in joy. He patted his head like a parent commending a child who'd done good and busied himself with her containment capsule.

Kid Flash wanted to feel sick again. He'd hit a girl again. He'd hurt a friend again. He'd betrayed a teammate again. But his clear sentiment was that there was no time for such things and that it would've been wallowing in emotion to let himself feel all the terrible emotion of this. He had to be strong. He went to Jinx's cage and again stared at all the straps and bars and needles and mechanisms around her.

"Burn it all to hell, Jinx!" he pleaded in his mind. "Destroy it with hex! Destroy it, Jinx!"

He focused his mind on these desperate pleas to the exclusion of all other thoughts. There wasn't time for the shame he felt about hitting girls, hurting his friends and aiding a villain. If Jinx really had been able to sense that he was in danger, maybe she could somehow know, even in her present state, what she needed to do and to act.

Hex it to smithereens, everything around you, baby!

Abruptly, his closed eyes pleading was interrupted by Slade's large hand on his shoulder. He was ordered out again. This time, he easily located Cyborg but couldn't find Robin. He kept sprinting back to where he'd found Cyborg while looking for Robin but he couldn't find his best friend. This was worrisome because Robin was such a great detective and such a cagey fighter. Eventually, he just had to go after the one Titan he could find.

But that, too, was worrisome. Cyborg was walking slowly across a city park. He wasn't even trying to hide nor to search. He was inviting a fight. Come and get me skinny ass.

He did. He sprinted at him and smacked him with a right and two lefts thinking those punches might have been so good that he'd knocked him out. But he found that he'd mistaken Cyborg closing his eyes instinctively for those eyes shutting as he slid into unconsciousness.

Cyborg wobbled slightly but stood up straight again and walked a few steps to one side, pleased that at least the split second blur that struck him had become an identifiable target.

"Maybe those little wussy punches worked on the others, KF but not me. Take your little pretty boy slaps back to the catwalk or photo shoot or wherever those count as punches."

Kid Flash bounced back and forth on the balls of his feet like a fighter who'd just stepped into the ring. Taunting from Cy? Why? Ahhh. There's the reason.

A glimmer of light reflected from the ground around Cyborg despite the thick grass. Water. The area was flooded around him. He wants me to rush him and get zapped. He's probably sending a current into it right now through a metal toe.

"Not gonna fall for it, Cy. And we'll see who punches hard. You know physics. Force equals mass times acceleration. What's more powerful, your mass almost twice mine or my acceleration a thousand times yours?"

Kid Flash sprinted a circle around Cyborg looking for a dry path to him. He thought he saw a jumpable distance behind him to his left. He created a mini cyclone with his arm and blew all the loose water off the grass around him just to be safe.

"Why're you doing this, KF?" Cyborg shouted.

KF showed him the respect of stopping 30 yards out to answer. "I have to. He's got Jinx. I'm sorry Cy. I really am."

He sped at his genius teammate, easily dodging a sonic cannon blast and then a punch thrown at what was only an incoming blur. He left his feet to deliver a punch with all his momentum behind it, a blow that, despite his weighing only 147 pounds, staggered Cyborg. He wanted to press his advantage but backed off when he heard the hiss of gas being sprayed. He moved to a spot 20 feet off and whipped his arm in a circle to create another mini cyclone and disperse it. Cyborg didn't concede anything, though. He was still fighting and shot out a series of small explosive spheres and laser blasts that had Slade Flash running, ducking, leaping and hurdling as fast as he could to avoid the combination attack. But after he had, he sped back at Cyborg at top speed. He again put all his momentum into a single leaping attack, this time the flying kick that Robin had been teaching him. Cyborg wobbled erratically with the impact this time. Kid Flash moved in to finish him off. Despite being hurt, Cyborg continued to swing, continued to deploy weapons, like lasers and tranquilizer darts right up till the moment he was knocked out. Kid Flash easily dodged them all and finally knocked Cyborg out with three of his best roundhouse punches delivered as fast as he could to Cy's chin.

Slade Flash also tried to catch Cyborg and prevent him falling to the ground but found himself lying under the two hundred fifty pound former teammate. He had to crawl out from under him and figure out how to carry him. He ended up lifting him in front of himself and sprinting with him that way, though he could only lift him up for a few seconds.

He vibrated through the side wall of the warehouse and, with great difficulty, made his way to the hidden elevators bearing the heavy burden of his genius teammate. Once down at the lower level, he carefully laid Cyborg down on the large table in the main room and went to Jinx's cage. He barely paid any notice to Slade setting Cyborg up in his containment capsule. His eyes had gone wide with excitement as soon as he'd gotten beside her cage. They were faint, but he thought he could see faint lines on the straps that restrained her and held her to the inclined table. The mechanism with the automatic injection device poised at her temple didn't have any faint lines but it didn't seem shiny like before. Maybe that could've been from other causes, condensation or dust or something else. But he had suspicisions that there was a hex based cause.

Keep going, Jinx! Hex the shit out of it, Jinx! Hex all the evil crap around you! Hex it!

He concentrated every ounce of his will into those thoughts to try and somehow transmit them to her. He closed his eyes and focused on them to the exclusion of everything else.

His concentration was only interrupted by Slade pulling him away. "What are you doing, Cheetah, praying? Maybe you should pray to me. Maybe I should be your god. The last messiah rose from the dead. And so did I."

Kid Flash stepped back, wondering, "Is this some next stage of psychosis or something?"

Slade pushed a gawking Kid Flash along with a pat on the rear and got an angry look from the slender speedster.

"You're almost done, Cheetah. Only my bird left, the most difficult. I wonder how you fared against him in your training sessions."

"He ussually beat me."

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know," snapped Kid Flash. "He just did. He's got an instinct, an aptitude for fighting that I just don't have."

"Could it be because he fought harder than you? Could it be that he was more consistently able to bring his whole will to bear in the contest?"

" . . . . Maybe. I-I don't know."

"Well keep in mind this time that if you fail, the pink witch dies. Not matching my bird's intensity in your little . . . intramural contests is understandable. Not matching him now is not. Do you understand?"

"Yes . . . master."

Robin heard the faint sound of Kid Flash's voice as he dropped almost silently atop the elevator at Slade's hideout. He heard the mix of anger and reluctance in the tone and the pause. Yes master? Holy shit. Raven must be right. He must have Jinx. How else could he be forcing that kind of crap from Wally? How else could he have forced Wally to attack the others? He discounted Gar's idea that it was mind control. People under mind control didn't have the sharpness to fight all that effectively. If Wally took out the others, he was thinking clearly even if he was acting under duress. Poor Wally. If the sick bastard did . . . that to me, what must he have done to a pretty boy like him. Robin shuddered at both recollection and extrapolation. He forced deep breaths to clear his head and started trying to formulate a battle plan amid his rising anger.

In the main room of the hideout, Kid Flash waited, a bit perplexed. Slade was about to send him out to find and fight Robin when he asked where he'd seen Robin on that last sortie that had ended with the capture of Cyborg. He couldn't find the boy wonder anywhere on the footage of it. Kid Flash said that this was correct. He hadn't seen Robin once that last time out. Kid Flash watched the single eye behind the mask go side to side, an outward sign of ongoing calculation.

"Stay here a moment, Cheetah," said Slade starting toward the control room. "And remember that you have to defeat my bird or the pink witch dies."

Robin nodded from inside the elevator, watching this scene from the tiny crack he'd pushed the doors apart. Suspicion confirmed. As he continued to watch, Kid Flash, standing with his back to him, moved out of his sight. Robin pushed the doors open and moved behind a stack of wooden shipping pallets. Now, he could see the whole large room, about two thirds the size of the warehouse floor at ground level. Against the far wall were five tubes, solid metal at the bottom and mostly clear plastic at the top. Four of them contained Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven and Cyborg. The fifth was empty. He gulped. Closer to him, on the left was a clear plastic cube with one side opened. The cube walls seemed to be made of a sandwich of inch thick clear plastic around some kind of almost clear gas tinged slightly red. Beyond that was another similar looking cube inside of which he could see Jinx, restrained and unconscious. And Kid Flash, in his usual uniform colored mostly black, Slade colors, was standing beside it staring at her.

Poor Wally.

Robin took a deep breath then checked his birdarangs. Ready to go.

Slade returned to the main room from a side room that Robin couldn't see. "Come out my bird! Come out!" he shouted looking in his direction. Resigned that he'd been detected, Robin did just that. He readied a birdarang and shouted. "Come on, KF, let's take him down!"

"No!"

"What?" Robin was surprised at the force of the response.

"He'll kill her!"

Slade laughed. "You tell him, Cheetah."

"KF?"

"He's got multiple triggers. She's still . . . vulnerable."

Robin was momentarily silent, unsure how to proceed.

"That's right, bird. Now, let's have the main event. Take HIM down, Cheetah."

But Kid Flash didn't respond right away. He only sighed with eyes closed.

"I said, take him down, Cheetah! Obey or you've killed the pink witch!"

Kid Flash mouthed the words "I'm sorry" to Robin then advanced on him. The closed confines of the 100 foot by 80 foot room worked in Robin's favor. Much of Kid Flash's speed advantage was diminished. And beyond just the limited area were obstacles like the large table and the two cages further restricting movement. Robin instantly saw that these things were in his favor. He didn't want to fight Wally and didn't know exactly what would happen if he beat him but he couldn't let someone give him to a violating psycho villain. He thought he would beat Kid Flash. Yes, he was faster than him, but he'd usually beaten him in their combat simulations room fights. He was a better fighter than him.

This was a different Wally, though. He was faster than Robin remembered. He was more determined. Robin had beaten him in practice fights at the Tower by picking the right move every time and fighting much more efficiently all the time so that he took away Kid Flash's speed advantage by his efficiency advantage, always the right kick, punch or block, always bringing the most force to bear. But he'd never fought this Kid Flash. This Kid Flash was faster and fiercer than he ever remembered. They traded punches and kicks and Kid Flash's choices weren't any better than in their simulated fights but he was so fast that Robin was beaten to every punch, beaten to every kick. He found his punches met by an impossible array of forearms flicking them away or deflecting them. He even found that Kid Flash was stronger than he thought. They grappled and wrestled at one point in their fight and Kid Flash quickly got position on him through strength.

Robin was furious. The more difficult the fight the more his fighting will consumed him. And now he was losing. He was fighting as hard as he could but taking constant damage from fists and flying feet that simply moved to fast for him to counter. He fought harder, if that was possible but succeeded only in prolonging the duration of his being hurt. Finally, fists and feet, like flood waters pouring over a dam, came at him almost unabated as he could not counter and could not block or dodge them. A series of 8 straight black gloved punches hit his jaw and finally he sank quickly into unconsciousness.

Slade was ecstatic. "Hahaha! Cheetah! You did it!"

Kid Flash only scowled at him. He picked up his best friend and laid him down gently on the large table in the middle of the room. He felt terrible about fighting Robin but he needed more time. He immediately made his way to Jinx's cage and looked closely. There were more signs. There were more signs now that something was going on. He closed his eyes.

Please baby! Now! Give it all the hex energy you've got! Hex the shit out of it, Jinx! Hex everything around you. Please!

It had to be now. What would Slade do to the Titans if he had them all in his control? Even now he was fixing some kind of control collar around Robin's neck on the table and checking if it was receiving signals from him. Kid Flash ran over an pulled it off Robin. Slade backhanded him to the concrete floor just as he finished doing so.

"What do you think you're doing, Cheetah?" he demanded as he stood over him.

"I'm protecting my friend."

"You're so obstinately insubbordinate, Cheetah. I may let my bird get revenge upon you later," said Slade and he could not help but notice that Kid Flash was not looking at him as he spoke but a few feet to his side, at Jinx in her cage.

"Your fixation with her is something I can no longer abide, Cheetah."

Kid Flash got to his feet, staying a few feet away from the much larger villain.

"Maybe it's not your choice any more."

"What? What are you talking about, Cheetah?" said Slade and he swung and backhanded Kid Flash to the floor again. This time, the teen speedster rose quickly to his feet. Over Slade's shoulder he'd seen a flutter. A pale gray eyelid had fluttered.

"It's not your choice any more. This is over . . asshole."

"Cheetah. I warn you. I've grown fond of you but I won't stand for that sort of-"

"Shut the fuck up, you whackjob. You're over."

"Have you been struck by amnesia, Cheetah? Have you forgetten that I have the pink witch?"

"You used to. I'm going to free her now."

"And how will you do that?" sneered Slade. "You can't get through my special cage."

"No. And neither can you."

The single eye was arched in a question. That's how it looked when Kid Flash rushed toward him. Slade weighed around a hundred pounds more than him. But he couldn't react fast enough to stop him and Kid Flash didn't have to lift him far. In one motion, he rushed at the villain and struck him with both hands at the solar plexus. He lifted him and started Slade's body vibrating. The force of the push was just enough to carry Slade in the air as far as Jinx's clear plastic cage. There, his body vibrated through the outer layer of super plastic. The back of his head, torso and his right leg below the knee went all the way through the inner layer of plastic. But he was stuck with is molecules vibrating in the charged xinothium plasma in the middle of the two super plastic layers.

Kid Flash saw what almost happened to his forearm that time he'd tested it. Slade's eye went wide. A gurgling sound came out his mouth on the outside of the cage and, like a body in the vacuum of space, his blood and flesh exploded into the space between the two walls. Kid Flash leaped forward, vibrating his own molecules as much as possible, and passed right through Slade's body. He felt some of the same numbness that he'd felt trying to pass through the cage when first captured, but with so much of the space being taken up by the disintegrating villain, he made it through easy.

He immediately leaped to pull the mechanism with the poison away from Jinx. A light was now blinking red on it. That was new. But as he reached and swatted it, he could see it had partly fallen apart anyway. In just the short time since he'd last checked, the pieces had separated. He kicked it all away, pulled the IV from her arm that was keeping her unconscious and started working on her restraints. They weren't a delicate mechanism like the mechanical injection apparatus. It took him a couple minutes to get her loose.

All the while he was muttering, "You did it Jinx . . . You saved yourself, baby . . . You did it."

When finally he had her loose, he held her upright hugged tight to him whispering "I love you" in her ear and she groaned slightly.

"Let's see about getting you out of-"

Just as he said it, the side of the cage opened. Wally looked and saw Dick returning from the control room. He carried Jinx out and lay her down gently on the large table. As Robin approached, he rushed to him and hugged him.

"I'm sorry man."

"Forget it. But you're gonna have to show compete like that in training from now on."

Wally nodded with a smile and turned his attention back to a very slowly reviving Jinx. From over his shoulder he heard Robin at the cage.

"What the hell is this?" he asked pointing to Slade partly on each side of the sandwich wall and destroyed in the middle of it.

"That's a guy who could've been something great but instead was something horrible."


	16. Aftermath

_Author's note: Praise whore here. Thanks for the kind reviews. There'll be one more chapter after this one._

It took more than an hour for the Titans to wrap things up at Slade's hideout. First, Kid Flash and Robin had to get the other Titans out of their containment capsules. All four were a bit groggy, in proportion to how long they'd been in there. First Kid Flash pulled Beast Boy out and hugged Gar and patted his back over and over and helped him to a chair. All the while he kept muttering, "I'm sorry Gar! I'm sorry Gar!". He zipped to the room in the back of the hideout with the small fridge and got Beast Boy something to eat as well as a juice. As he finished this, he saw Robin helping Starfire out of her containment capsule. He sped over and took her in his arms in the course of helping pull her out and held her upright with a full body hug.

"I'm sorry Kory! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I-I didn't want to hurt you! Please forgive me!"

Robin closed the capsule top behind her and looked at Wally holding her.

"Hey! What're you, moving in on my girl?"

"No! I just . . . I'm just sorry," said Kid Flash and he passed her gently over to his pal.

"It's okay," said Robin over her shoulder as she groaned. "I had my arms around Jinx, too."

Kid Flash stopped part way through unfastening the top of Raven's capsule. "What!"

"I'll explain later."

Wally stared.

"I'll explain later! It was nothing . . . Kory was there too."

"Oh." Wally nodded and used his speed to undo all the clasps and buckles and free Raven in a split second. She groaned as he lifted her out but was pretty quickly conscious and aware of what was going on around her. Kid Flash looked back to check on a still woozy Jinx lying on the table and turned back to Raven.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"We're in Slade's hideout," replied Kid Flash.

"How'd I get here?"

"I, um, I took you here after I-I, um, hit you." He grabbed her and hugged her tight. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I . . . He had Jinx. He threatened to kill her if I didn't do what he ordered. I-I had to fight you. I'm sorry."

Raven's head was clearing pretty fast. She didn't feel too bad at all. She could focus on the feel of the slender, athletic male body in her arms. While she gently squeezed, he kept whispering apologies. Finally they separated. Kid Flash looked around and saw that Robin was helping Cyborg out of his capsule. But Cyborg barely looked like he needed any help. He checked on Jinx. She almost looked as though she'd stopped trying to get up and had chosen to take a small nap instead. He looked down on her from beside the table. She'd made their victory over Slade possible by somehow knowing to exude hex energy. He sighed with satisfaction and tried to think of the word. She had a slight smile on her face. Beatific? Yeah. That was it. He smirked. She'll get a kick out of that one when I tell her.

But for now he turned back to Raven. He reached out and took her hands.

"I want you to know how sorry I am that I struck you. I-"

"You already said that."

"I-I know but I just feel terrible about hitting you and Star, " he pleaded, avoiding eye contact.

"But it was okay to hit Gar and Cyborg and Robin?"

"No! Of course not. But it's especially wrong for a man to hit a woman."

"I'm not defenseless or vulnerable, you know."

"I know."

"And you did it to protect another woman. It doesn't make you a bad guy, Wally."

He sighed. "Don't you feel some emotion about it?"

"Not nearly as much as you apparently," she replied. But the truth that she barely acknowledged to herself was that she hadn't fought all out because of emotion, because she was reluctant to hurt a guy she liked so much. She'd tried to stop him in ways that wouldn't hurt him too much. He didn't have any protection, just that skin tight suit. She couldn't let herself hurt this boy and got beat for not going all out. She consoled herself with the notion that there probably wouldn't be any cute, nice guy villains to feel ambivalent about fighting.

"How 'bout you hit me?" asked Wally with an enthusiastic nod.

"What? That's silly."

"It'd make me feel better. Even if you don't care to, please do it, for me," said the speedster pushing his chin forward. "Even things up. Smack me good. You can't tell me you don't feel some anger at me. I hit you. Hit me back even if just to make me feel better."

Raven shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Boys," she muttered

Then she sighed and wound up and punched him right on the jaw knocking him back and off his feet so that he had to catch himself with one on the concrete floor of the hideout. He immediately rushed back at her grinning ear to ear and hugged her.

"That was great Rae. Nice punch!"

"What'd you call me?"

"Um, Raven. I said that was great Raven."

"That's what I thought you said." Even without the hurried correction, she could not have stayed angry. He hugged her with his right cheek against her left. She was surprised how good this felt, just the simple fact of skin on skin contact. Warm and reassuring and yet slightly electric at the same time. She wondered if it was just because it was him.

He pulled back from her and smiled. "Still friends?"

She nodded and watched him turn to Jinx. He immediately forgot everything else in the world as he stared intently at her minute after minute. She found the depth of his concern adorable. He just stood there and watched, Mr. Kinetic Energy, waiting till she woke, not moving from the spot for 15 minutes while everyone walked around him. Cyborg gave him a pat on the butt as he passed and muttered "Nice fighting, speedo.". He and Beast Boy both gave Kid Flash thank yous and pats on the back after they saw dead Slade caught between the walls of his own special cage and Robin explained to them what had happened. He had to because Wally just sighed and stared at Jinx.

Robin was the wrapup whiz, anyway. Robin was the one who controlled the scene after a fight, who thought of every angle from information in files and computers to cataloging all the stolen items to looking for leads to other criminals or villains. He was so good at seeing all the possible angles and loose ends and so practiced at the art of the post fight wrapup that the others were in the habit of simply waiting for his rapid fire commands. Robin directed Starfire to the roof and Raven to check other levels. Beast Boy was assigned to sniff out any suspicious scents of any sort. Cyborg was sent to dismantle the hideout security systems.

Robin, himself, started poking around in the control room. This was Slade after all. Who could tell what treasure trove of information might be waiting among his stuff. Had he pierced our security? If so, how? What did he know about us? If he could find out other villains could, too. And there was the little matter of the fact that the guy was psycho magnus, the worst villain out there. Maybe just understanding some of what made him tick would help to figure out the lesser villains.

Robin entered the control room and looked around at the spartan furnisghings. A few tables, a chair and the computers, electronic equipment and large screens. On the table by the computer keyboard were two red leather bound books, the sort that are used as expensive diaries. But he knew immediately that these had had different uses. They were labeled in black magic marker. One was titled BIRD. The other was labeled CHEETAH. Robin flipped through them and stopped with a sigh. Too much there to go through right then. He sat down in front of the huge screen on the wall past the table. A few clicks at a keyboard there and he had video of Kid Flash staring down at Jinx on the large table in the main room playing on the plasma screen on the wall to his right. Robin sniffed. Hmmmph. Live video still running.

"Let's see what else I can get," he muttered, tongue out of his mouth to one side as he clicked and typed looking for other options.

"Bingo!"

He was able to navigate to a menu at which he could just drag an arrow along a timeline, apparently the length of time that cameras had been running, and see whatever had been filmed then. He dragged it to the start of the timeline. It showed an empty main room. Hmmm. Another thought occurred to Robin. He saw some numbers in the corner of the screen. The "1" was highlighted. He clicked the "2" the screen now showed footage of the room he was in, the control room, at the same time. Robin figured out which room all six numbers were. When he got to number 4, there was some sort of lab or medical examining room. Robin had taken a quick look inside a couple minutes ago. On the screen, Slade dropped a limp Kid Flash on an examining table and pulled off his red and yellow uniform and the dance belt he wore underneath.

"Oh shit," muttered Robin unconsciously pushing his chair back from the screen as he watched the villain inspecting his best friend's naked body. A minute later, Starfire approached asking where there was a bathroom. He quickly clicked to another camera. There was an empty main room of the hideout on the screen when she peeked in the room. He directed her down the hall. Maybe Slade was about to do to him what he . . . . His eyes went wide. Oh god. She-she doesn't need to see that. He wasn't sure he could watch it being done to someone else. Part of the justification for fixating on beating him had always been so that no one else . . .

Poor Wally. Not good to be such a pretty boy when you get captured by someone like Slade. He shook his head and dragged the timeline arrow ahead.

There on the screen was Wally, now in a uniform of Slade colors. He was inside one of the clear super plastic cages.

"You're out of whatever's left of your frigging mind, asshole," he said toward the camera.

Robin laughed out loud both at the words and the way he said it. Holy shit! Mouthing off to Slade like that!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Kid Flash's body jerked back and forth with what Robin could easily guess was electric current torture.

"Unnnh!" Kid Flash gasped at the pain, falling to all fours. "Well . . . I'll . . . have to tell Jinx about you. She's Hindu. They have that whole belief in reincarnation. But you're proof that it's wrong. If it was true, you'd be a cockroach right now."

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

Robin couldn't watch any more of that, his pal getting tortured. He puzzled at what he'd just seen. Openly antagonizing Slade? Openly antagonizing Slade when he's got you at his mercy? There must've been a motive behind it reasoned Robin. He must've been trying to get Slade to inadvertantly reveal something or make some kind of mistake. He must've.

He switched to the camera of what he knew would be an empty room and let out a long slow breath. He was repelled. But he was also fascinated. He couldn't stop watching. He chuckled some more. Frigging Wally! Talking smack to fucking Slade . . . and then bringing the motherfucker down! Oh man.

He dragged the timeline arrow ahead some more and let go. The screen filled with a close up of Slade beating the crap out of Wally inside the clear plastic cage. He was actually inside the cage with Wally. Wally was too tired to respond at better than normal speed and too weak to stop the much larger villain. He punched then kicked him and threw Kid Flash across the seven foot cage into the opposite wall knocking the breath out of Wally's lungs. Then he picked Kid Flash up by the throat and held him off the floor of the cage by his neck. Wally grabbed frantically at the much larger villain's arm while he kicked at him to no avail.

"You can end all this, Cheetah," Robin could hear the menacing monotone say. He pressed pause. Cheetah? Cheetah? Like the book title. He shook his head. No worse than 'Bird' I suppose, but damn. He pressed play.

"Bow down and call me your master. You can have food and water and you can rest your wonderful little body. Just call me your master."

Robin shuddered. Wonderful little body? He shuddered again.

Kid Flash struggled again, grunting and groaning with the effort to get free of the villain.

"Mastur," he finally spit out at the mask now pressed to his own forehead.

Slade's eye opened wide. He loosened his grip but looked at the slender teen skeptically.

"Mastur . . bate, asshole. Go fuck yourself."

Slade threw him across the cage and Wally slumped unconscious to the floor of it.

"Ahahahahahaha!" Robin laughed and clapped his hands together. Knowing that Wally was okay let him enjoy the remark and ignore his pal's pain. He wanted to pat Wally's shoulder, to go give him a hug. He wanted to play it for him and thank him. But, instead, after thinking some more, he took a deep breath and turned it off. He'd watch it all at some point in the future but he couldn't now. And it would help to be a little further away from all these events. But he thought of something helpful he could do with the footage. He looked around the control room and, sure enough, found a container with blank dvd's. He started looking for an appropriate short stretch of video later in the timeline. Once he found it, he started making copies of it.

Robin walked back into the main room of the hideout just as the others were reporting back and Jinx finally stirred, groaning and sighing as she always did upon waking. Wally lifted her up by the shoulders then held her in a hug. She leaned on one hand behind herself as well.

"Unnnnh . . . what happened? I saved your butt, right?"

Wally smiled. "Yup."

"I knew it. This hero gig is a piece of cake," Jinx half smirked half groaned with eyes still blinking at the lighting of the room.

Wally couldn't help but chuckle and so did Robin and Starfire over his shoulders. Jinx yawned and stretched, supported by Wally, and turned to Starfire.

"Did he do anything or did he just walk around looking pretty again?"

"Friend Jinx!" Starfire protested. "Wally killed the villain Slade."

Jinx's eyes opened wide. "You did what?" she asked Wally.

He nodded. "He was threatening you. He tried to kill you at the last second. The mechanism to inject you with a killing dose of poison had been activated."

"But . . .?"

"But you'd broken it and . . . well . . . look." He pointed over his shoulder at the wall of the cage where the powerful villain was still caught, like a butterfly pinned halfway through the glass of a display, and this butterfly had had it's insides eaten out by a charged xinothium plasma. Jinx got up and walked over to inspect the dead villain. Wally could tell she was very impressed.

"You . . . did this . . . to . . . him?"

He nodded. "He made a cage for me that he said I couldn't vibrate through. I tried once on that one over there," he said pointing to the adjacent one. "And I almost lost my arm. That xinothium's amazingly reactive and as a charged plasma it's even worse than usual. But I figured that if I couldn't get through it no one else could either. So, when you started to show signs of affecting the apparatus around you I made my move."

Jinx stepped back over to Wally. "You took out Slade . . . for me."

He nodded. She kissed him and they locked in an embrace for a minute. When she got up off the table, she went over to the cage in which she'd been held. She stared at the apparatus to which she'd been connected. But mostly she stared at dead Slade. Kid Flash watched her, not really surprised that the girl he loved wasn't the least bit squeamish. Jinx might avail herself of girly girl privileges when it suited her. She could be flowers, bubble baths and lace. But she could also be a merciless fighter, workout zealot and unsentimental intellectual.

She leaned right up close to the dead villain's face, the single eye still open but now unmoving. She was thinking of how incredibly powerful he'd been. She remembered how the academy students talked about him. Always in hushed tones of awe. What a rep! He intimidated them. He intimidated Brother Blood. He intimidated the Titans. He drove Robin practically insane worrying about him. She took a half step back. How big was he? Six five? Two hundred fifty pounds? Two sixty? She turned to Wally watching her and stretched her hands, thumb tips touching in the center, around his waist. She came up a little short. She laughed.

"What?" he chuckled in response.

"He was so much bigger than you!" she whispered.

"But I'm a Flash."

She smirked. "You're also the guy who'd hug everyone if he could, who tries to avoid fights and convince bad guys to just go home. You're . . you're a nerd! You must be reading a dozen different books right now. They're there in that stack beside your bed."

"He was going to kill you," said Kid Flash, almost arguing his point as to how he a slender nice guy could kill badass number one. "He was going to hurt or kill the others. I had to. Besides which," he turned his head to the side and squinted in skepticism, " you're reading like a dozen books, too."

"I'm a voracious reader, a book lover."

"But . . . I'm just a nerd?"

She nodded with a big smile then burst into laughter and slapped his hip. "I just can't believe you took him out, Wally," she chuckled before they embraced again.

When they finally separated, Robin got reports from everyone. Cyborg had taken out the security system. Raven reported where the swag from Kid Flash's thefts was stored and Beast Boy reported no other scents in the complex. After Starfire reported in, Robin announced that he was about to call the police and the press.

"Somebody has a reputation that has to be repaired," he said with a look at Wally. Wally nodded.

"How 'bout letting me face the cameras in my red and yellow, Robin? I've got a spare suit back at the Tower. I can be back here in 10 seconds."

Robin nodded at his black and gold clad pal.

When they faced the lights, cameras and microphones of a hastily staged press conference outside the warehouse entrance, Kid Flash was in his normal red bottom yellow topped uniform. Robin handled most of the speaking. It seemed like every print, radio or tv media person in Jump City had quickly descended on the property when news went out that there would be a press conference with the Titans and rumors spread about them having beaten Slade.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice," began Robin standing at a microphone stand with several mics atop it and with the other Titans in a line five across behind him. "We asked you here to make two announcements. One is that the villain known as Slade is dead. He-"

Robin tried to continue as he'd intended but every photographer seemed to think that was the time to take pictures and a rumble of shock went through the crowd followed by exclamations and chatter among all the many attendees.

"The-the villain known as Slade is dead. He was in the process of trying to kill one of our auxiliary members, Jinx," said Robin and he pointed to her over his right shoulder. "Kid Flash," he began and pointed to him also over his right shoulder next to Jinx, "stopped him the only way that was possible at that point in time, by killing him. This leads me into the other announcement. I've got copies here of video from Slade's hideout two levels below the warehouse behind us," he said holding up a handful of dvd's. "I'll hand these out after the press conference. This footage was taken by Slade's security cameras, and shows him, repeatedly, threatening to kill Jinx if Kid Flash did not do exactly as he commanded. Kid Flash is not a villain. He never has been. He's our friend as well as our teammate on the Titans and he would never freely do the things he was forced to do in the past couple days. Those robberies, committed in a uniform bearing Slade colors, were, in effect, committed because there was a gun to Jinx's head. Actually it was a poison injection system. But the point stands. Kid Flash is a hero and not a villain. Please don't think otherwise for even a second. Now, if there are any questions . . "

A series of shouts came forth from the forty odd gathered members of the press. A couple were similar and one woman's insistent voice stood out as the others hushed.

". . . anything to say, Kid Flash?"

He moved forward to the microphone and Robin moved a half step to the side.

"I-I want to say that I'm sorry. Even though I committed robberies these past two days only because of the threat by a crazed villain to kill Jinx, I still feel badly about it. And if there had been another course of action possible to save an innocent life I would not have taken Slade's. There wasn't. I just ask that the people of Jump City please give me a chance to regain your trust. This," he said with his arms out to indicate himself in his uniform, "is my life. It may seem ridiculous and sometimes it's very difficult. But this is my place. I've enjoyed helping all of you. It's a-a very satisfying life. I ask that you please forgive actions that were extorted from me and give me a chance to show you that I'm still here to help. Thank you."

With that, Kid Flash stepped back beside Jinx as a score of shouted questions filled the air no single one intelligible for all the din. Finally, another insistent reporter got his question to be the sole one heard through shouted repitition.

"How did Slade die? How did Slade die? How . . . How did Slade die?"

Robin raised an eyebrow toward Kid Flash. He stepped forward again.

"Slade was killed when he could not pass through the walls of a special cage he'd made to contain me," said Kid Flash. He took a long slow breath before continuing, "As tempting as it is to welcome his passing for what he made of his gifts, that joy should be tempered by regret that someone of such fantastic intelligence and abilities could not fit into society where he would have enriched all of us with them."

Robin looked at his pal and nodded slightly. Perfect. The perfect high road statement. And just as he expected, it took some of the energy out of the press, who didn't want to look small and petty by going for gossip and the salacious angles of the story right after a statement like that. Robin deftly handled the questions shouted forth for ten minutes. They were starting to regain an aggressive, gossipy edge at which point Robin apologized that they couldn't stay longer and stepped forward from the podium to hand out a dozen dvd's with video of Slade threatening to kill Jinx if Kid Flash didn't do as he demanded. The press barely noticed that the other Titans had gone back inside the warehouse to which Robin also retreated behind a cordon of police at the entrance.

They were back at the Tower a half hour later where Cyborg took blood samples from Jinx, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy and himself and processed them at the Titans infirmary. He disrupted a nascent mood of celebration that was accompanying Robin's contacting other heroes to be at the Tower party in two days with the news that Slade had been poisoning all of them. He said that Jinx's health would've probably gone downhill steeply after another day or so of exposure. Also sobering were the images on the video footage that they all saw parts of on the screen at the communications center. Jinx summed up the mood of all of them when she turned to Wally and asked, "You couldn't have drawn it out and killed him more slowly and painfully, huh?"

Wally smiled and shook his head. Jinx wasn't really in a comic mood. She went to bed early to get some extra sleep and recover her strength. A normal girl would've been killed part way through receiving all the poisons she'd gotten through her Slade IV. But even Jinx was weakened, as were Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg. The Tower was fairly quiet, the primary sounds being Robin's calls to every young hero possible with an invite to the joint 2nd annual young heroes party and 16th birthday bash for Kid Flash. Attendance promised to be even better than the previous year as responses came in on phone, email and video conference lines.

Kid Flash, meanwhile, was in his room sitting in the chair against one wall. He wrapped the covers tight around Jinx and watched her sleep before absentmindedly opening a red bound book labeled CHEETAH handed to him by Robin.

It was very weird. He'd been figured out. The same crazed villain who didn't get the basic arrangement of civilized society had figured him out. He'd figured him out in various ways. The book was a sort of haphazard notebook for any thoughts Slade had about Kid Flash. Entries were sometimes a line or two, sometimes paragraphs sometimes page after page of the most perfect, precise cursive handwriting Wally'd ever seen. The order of the notes seemed to be simply in the order they'd occurred to Slade. A paragraph speculating about "Cheetah's orange hair" was followed by pages of ruminations about Beast Boy's off the cuff remark in a tv interview that Kid Flash was the "nerd of the group".

Some of the stuff was idle conjecture. There were penned sketches of him taking up entire pages, one of his face, another like a Da Vinci drawing comparing his proportions at waist, hips and chest. There were two nude sketches also. And there was a sketch of him talking to Robin. There was a picture of Jinx lying on the ground apparently dying from a knife to the heart. As much as it pained him, Wally had to admit that the drawings were very good.

Elsewhere, he could follow the evolution of Slade's thoughts about how his super speed worked. He quickly dismissed the possibility that "slender Cheetah moves his sublime self through the power of ingested pop tarts and tv dinners". Wally could read Slade considering and knocking down possibilities one after one, and then, amazingly, zeroing in on the truth. The scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs had had him right there in front of him. They'd poked and prodded and taken blood and piss and saliva. They'd had all the access they wanted. And the one guy somewhere in their offices who'd gotten it right had been laughed at. A singularity! Hahahahaha! Slade speculated that Kid Flash was powered by a singularity drawing energy from another dimension half way through the book. One of the last entries was shot through with exclamation points. Slade had seized on Kid Flash's bare bones explanation of how he got his powers. "I was hit by lightning and-and chemicals" to form a hypothesis that lightning, electric current traveling at the speed of light, in a particular medium, could create an enduring singularity. It may even be reproducible by a biological entity if the chemical context can be repeated.

Kid Flash leaned back, deeply impressed with Slade's knowledge of science. But he knew that Slade was a genius of sorts to have created his hideouts and done some of the things he did. What was really surprising was that he'd figured out his life too. Slade ruminated for pages on end that Cheetah, as he invariably referred to him was born to dominate. But he seemed to have trouble figuring out the picture of his personality he'd pieced together from media reports. Then, there was a page which began wondering why "Bird" was so overtly dominant toward those around him while "Cheetah" was not. He wrote of his hypothesis that "Bird" had been a very happy child then suffered a tragedy, that that would explain Robin's personality. And then there was a line with one word. NEGLECT. He went on for pages that "Cheetah" was a bastard or an orphan, at any rate, neglected and always hungry for contact.

Kid Flash sighed reading it. How does he understand that about me but nothing about himself? What the fuck? And, then after he started studying Kid Flash's DNA, there were pages of speculation about how his appearance was so odd, orange hair, bright bright blue eyes, so handsome and exceptionally proportioned, what father would trust that that boy was his? How many orange haired olympic quality athletes were out there? What was the likelihood that one of them was married to his mother? "Cheetah is so unusual that he was certain to be seen as another man's, certain to be neglected and to develop a pattern of introversion instead of overt dominance. This likely presaged his becoming a reader and intellectual to the extent that Toad would call him the "nerd" of the group."

He stopped reading and stared at Jinx a few minutes. What a combination of colossal ignorance and insight that fucker had been! Toward sunset, Kid Flash took a break from watching Jinx sleeping and went up to the roof.

Robin had made every possible attempt to contact an invitee and stepped away from the communications center with a satisfied sigh. He remembered that there was something he'd wanted to say to Kid Flash. He looked for him in the great room but didn't find him. He checked at the communications center. The display listed Wally and his communicator as being on the roof.

Robin jogged up the stairs and came out into the bright sun and steady breeze on the roof. He saw his pal's red and yellow clad figure at the far end, looking out over the ocean into the sunset. He approached him as quietly as he could, sneaking up on him. It was a practice drilled into him by Batman, practicing being on a mission at all times. But it wasn't much fun with Wally. Wally would be lost in thought and not pay attention. Sometimes Dick thought he was the easiest person in the world to sneak up on. But Wally didn't flinch either. Dick marveled at that. It could be the darkest, scariest, creepiest night and he could make the most fantastic soundless, invisible, undetectable approach and Wally would just say, 'hi', as though no one could possibly approach him with harm in mind. Dick could barely imagine that. It created a ripple of envy in him.

He was suddenly behind and one step to the side of Wally. He pressed one hand to the middle of Kid Flash's yellow clad back. He didn't even move. Not the slightest flinch. Robin shook his head. How can he do that! He has no idea who it is!

"Hey Wally."

Kid Flash turned to his left and saw Robin now standing beside him. "Hey Dick."

"Do I have to go through the whole protect yourself spiel again?" asked Robin looking out over the ocean more than at his best friend.

Kid Flash shrugged indifference also looking out to the seemingly infinite waters as the steady breeze 15 floors up whipped past them.

"You didn't know who it was Wally. You've gotta always be ready. You can't take it for granted that it's me or-or Jinx."

"Oh, I knew it wasn't Jinx. Her hand would've been two feet lower. And she's still sleeping. But, anyway. I just can't be in revved up protective mode all the time. That's just not me, Dick. Is that so bad here on the Tower? It's all people I really like or love who work with me. I . . . I think I'll just stay as trusting Wally in the Tower."

Robin nodded out of Kid Flash's sight. KF knew he would.

"Nice job at the press conference."

"Thanks. You too."

There was a slight pause. "I-I hope this doesn't come across too . . Batman . . but I wanted to thank you for killing Slade."

"Wasn't much of a choice. He was going to kill Jinx."

"Yeah. I just . . . I mean, it's a load off my mind to not have to think about him, to not have him be even a tiny presence in the back of my mind."

"Well, to the extent that it fits, you're welcome."

Robin took a couple breaths, uncertain about continuing. It'd been so long without mentioning it. But the son of a bitch's death had taken away some of the power of it. And this was Wally, best friend Wally. Besides which, he'd admitted about it being so close to happening to him. Why not?

Robin took a deep breath. "I read your case report. It's like 10 pages fer chrissakes. You really do a thorough job on those. "

Kid Flash turned to his solemn looking pal. "Thanks. Helps that I can," he mimed super fast typing in the air, "I try to include everything."

"You even include stuff that makes you look bad."

"Like I said, I try to include everything."

"Everything?"

Wally looked at his pal. He wished the mask wasn't there. He tried to gauge Dick's intent.

"What are you driving at, Dick?"

"You said Slade tried to-to . . . do you, to . . . . . . . fuck you. You said he was on top of you when you woke up the first time and that you were naked and tied down and another second or two and he'd have . . raped you."

Wally stared into the blank eye openings of the mask and nodded. "Only reason it didn't happen was 'cause I could vibrate my wrists and ankles out of the restraints."

"And you quote Slade ranting about that sort of thing while torturing you, but nothing about me."

Wally shrugged limply.

Dick stared hard at his pal. He stared and stared. Finally, Wally broke and looked away.

"Alright. Yeah. He-he ranted about . . . about . . . doing you. The guy was the most totally bizarre combination of brilliant and sick I've ever seen. He . . . he was obsessed with you, with . . . your body and what a dominant force you are. He had this whole darwinism ad absurdum take on things."

Robin had an odd partial smile.

"What?"

"Jinx is right. You're such a nerd sometimes. Darwinism ad absurdum?"

"What? That fits. He-"  
"I know it fits Wally. I'm not Gar. It's just funny that you go to that right away. And, just for the record, I like having nerd friends."

Wally smiled but saw that Dick's expression was clouding over to the most somber look possible.

"He-he . . . . did me, fucked me, raped me, dogged me, whatever you want to call it, the minute he had me at his hideout, " began Robin looking out at the infinite sea as he spoke to further diminish his pain. "I was . . same as you. Naked. Tied down. But I couldn't vibrate out of the straps. Fucking psycho, weighed more a hundred twenty pounds more than me . . . it fucking . . . . . hurt."

Robin's voice cracked. He sighed and stared straight up and Kid Flash wondered what happened to tears shed inside that mask. He was surprised by the bitter chuckle that Robin let out next before continuing angrily.

"How the . . . how the fuck was I supposed to NOT obsess about him, about getting back at him after what he did to me? He said something about affecting my mind more than my body but how am I supposed to NOT think about it over and over and fantasize about killing him over and over. I'm a super hero. He's a frigging villain and he screwed me. He . . . !" Robin shook his head and breathed heavily. "That's . . ! That's not supposed to happen. How could I not feel like I'd failed, after being humiliated like that? I knew that he wanted me to fixate about getting him, but how could I not!" he half shouted and then calmed down. "I suppose it was part of why I seemed like such an uptight jerk to you at first."

"At first?" asked Wally. And he got the desired effect as Robin smiled at his little joke.

"I couldn't admit it in the case file. I . . . I couldn't tell my friends. I half suspected that Raven knew. And I always expected Slade to laugh at me when we fought him after that. I thought he'd call me . . his . . . bitch or something in front of the others but he kinda seemed to spit on the others."

"He kept calling Gar and Cy 'Toad and Tin Man' in front of me."

"Wally! Let me get through this! It's hard for me to talk about this. Why else would I have omitted it from the case file? Anyway, I-I wondered if I'd seem like such an appropriate leader if everyone knew I'd been . . . "

Wally waited. Robin looked down at his steel toed shoes, then out at the ocean horizon then finally over toward him.

"You remember that time a few months back that you brought me to Bruce Wayne's mansion?"

Robin nodded.

"There was a spot on the carpet. In the library, by one corner of that huge oak desk. There was a spot on the carpet. I don't know what it was, coffee or wine or what. But it was there on that cool tan patterned carpet in there."

Robin leaned back baffled. " . . . So what?"

"Yeah. Exactly. So what? It's still the most incredible house I've ever seen. One tiny spot doesn't change the fact that it's a beautiful place."

Robin stared at him. "So, the analogy is . . . my horrible five minutes being violated, in the big picture of my whole life to . . . that . . . spot that you say is there on the carpet by the desk in the study at the mansion?"

"Come on, it's not that bad for short notice. It leaves out your complete lack of responsibility but-"

"Ehhh." Robin shook his head.

Both teens smiled.

"Can I. . . . ?" Wally asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, alright," said Dick with a roll of his eyes behind his mask, knowing what the question was. And as soon as he said it, Wally had his arms around him in a hug. He rolled his eyes anew behind his mask but hugged Wally back just as hard.

"We all still love you, dude. You're still my best friend and the bro I never had," whispered Wally and he felt Dick let out a deep exhale.

"A brother with a spot on the carpet," chuckled Dick and they separated.

"Sure, leader," smiled Wally, "Just get Alfred on it."


	17. Back home

Author's note: Sorry about the delay in posting another chapter. I intended to wrap this up in one chapter but then kept adding things and couldn't figure out how to whittle it down. So, I finally decided not to whittle it down at all. There will be one or two more chapters after this.

Kid Flash left his best friend, Robin, on the roof and sped down to the kitchen for a quick bite to eat, his thoughts switching from sympathy for his pal to anticipation of seeing Jinx. He then made his way back to his quarters at a leisurely pace, passing an ipodding Beast Boy dancing in the hall oblivious to his red and yellow clad teammate approaching. The music was so loud that Wally could clearly hear a song by The Go! Team playing even with the ear buds in. He gave a surprised but not resistant Gar a hug about the shoulders. Gar smiled and hugged him back, then went back to dancing, only in place.

"Wallydude!" Gar half shouted unnecessarily as he stepped and spun rapidly to keep up with the beat. "Huddle Formation!" he said pointing at his ears and naming the song playing. Wally nodded. He could hear the song even more clearly standing next to him. "Good call dude! Thanks!"

Wally smiled you're welcome at him and watched Gar continue dancing down the hall in the other direction. Wally went back to his room, and reached for the door knob but knew he could be quieter without using it so he pulled his hand back and then vibrated through the door. Inside, the room was dark except for a little moonlight through the window. He was afraid to even breath. Jinx still looked to be in a deep sleep.

He sighed silently. Still recovering from all that poison fucking Slade pumped into her. He clenched his teeth at the thought of that fucking asshole hurting her. Of course, any normal girl would be dead right now. That's what Cyborg had said. The amount of poison in her blood had made him think he'd done the test wrong the first time. It can't be that many parts per million. She'd already be . . . But despite being an exquisite beauty, to him anyway, she was much stronger than any normal girl. And soooooo much more interesting, too.

He sighed again. When they'd all gotten back to the Tower she'd said she felt tired and wanted to go to sleep. Wally'd started to follow after her but found he was taking steps without moving. He felt a hard pull at the back of his uniform as it stretched two feet.

"Cy!" he groaned as he swatted at a powerful metal arm. But his much larger teammate just lifted him off the floor then walked over and dropped him down on the couch in the great room without letting go of him.

"Stay here, Wally."

"What?!"

"I think you should stay here."

"Are you crazy?! I-"

Cyborg pressed down on the top of his head.

"Ow! Cy!" Wally resisted at normal speed but got nowhere before reluctantly relaxing.

Cyborg let out a deep chuckle. "Soon as I can't overpower a hundred forty five pound pretty boy, I'll be useless to this team. Look. Wally. She needs sleep and nothing but sleep. Nothing. But. Nothing! She's this close," he said holding up an index finger and thumb a hair apart, "to needing to be in an intensive care unit. I'm still not quite sure how she's not dead. I'm not sure I could be better than in a coma if I had that much multisystem biosuppressant in me. She seemed kind of okay at first, at Slade's hideout because she was riding adrenaline. You were okay. She was okay. Slade was taken out. Right now the poisons are going down but she can't be hopped up on adrenaline non-stop. She needs complete rest."

Wally had nodded then gone up to the roof where he'd had his talk with Dick. Now he stood beside the bed looking down, almost unbalanced by a powerful whirl of protectiveness and lust. Her delicate hourglass shape outlined in the covers fueled both. He sighed once more thinking of how she'd gone out doing detective work to find him.

"Virginia!" he whispered.

Another sigh. He wanted so much to hold her. At the thought of her skin against his, his thoughts inevitably went to kissing her, first her lips then her neck then down to her perfect little breasts. He recalled past pleasure and thought of looking down into those cat eyes of hers, of feeling her taut round hip and rubbing his nose on hers, smiling at her at the joy they were about to share and then-

No!

Wally shook his head. He took a step back and groaned softly.

No! We can't, he reminded himself.

We can't . . . .

She has to sleep!

He sighed still staring down at her beautiful light gray face. He could think of little but his desire to hold her in his arms, to feel her skin against his own. But she had to sleep. This wasn't making love one more time and thereby cutting it close on getting ready in time to leave with Robin for classes at Jump City Academy. This was her health. It didn't matter how easy it would be to wake her and how eager she'd probably be to do what came naturally to the two of them. But just thinking about holding her tight . . . . he looked down at a certain location in the red part of his uniform and sighed. He forced himself to recall dialog between the romantic leads of that last Star Wars film for a minute. He and Jinx liked to joke about it. George Lucas dialog. Pure plastic. That did the trick. But he knew he'd run out of horrendous lines from even that movie to relax himself.

He wanted her as much as he'd ever wanted her. He'd been kept separate from her for days, first by torture then by her capture and the threat of her death. He'd been forced to confront over and over the idea of her demise and this constant prodding and stimulation of his affection for her, to make him do as Slade wished. If you love her, you'll rob these banks for me. If you care about her, you'll knock over these jewelry stores for me. If you can't live without her you'll fight Beast Boy for me.

Starfire!

Raven!

Even Robin!

All that jabbing at, and prodding of his affection for her, only made his desire to express that affection grow. He stared down at her and sighed. He couldn't resist the urge to hold her. It didn't have to be sex! Just-just holding her. That was fantastic in its own right. He could do that . . . he hoped. He pulled off everything and slid under the covers at the edge of the bed and stayed at the very edge of the memory foam mattress not sure how much he was lying to himself that he could be in bed with her without making love to her. He closed his eyes and repeated over and over in his mind, "She has to sleep! She has to sleep!" He didn't know if he could do it, but he'd try, for her sake. He vowed not to do anything to wake her, not to start anything unless she consciously did first. Even then . . . !

Then she edged a little closer to him, shifting with a soft groan. After a few minutes, she shifted position again and her hand came to rest on the skin of his 8 pack abs. What a curious thing it was. She was deep asleep. But with the touch of her hand on his skin, she somehow knew that he was there. He didn't move a muscle. He reacted, but . . that's not a muscle. He lay there and slowly, over the course of 20 minutes, Jinx turned and moaned and moved toward him and sighed and moved toward him and slowly but surely she moved atop him without him doing anything. This was her preference, atop him with her ear over his heart. He liked to sleep on his right side holding her in front of him but this was good, too.

And this was honest too.

Some couples click for an hour a night or sometimes a couple of hours and the rest of the hours are a chore for both parties to get through but they try to because the fire of that time is so right. That wasn't true for them. He loved talking to her, too. He loved her playful wordfighting, barbs and jokes and jibes in the most perfect refined english coming from those luscious lips. God, the combination! He loved watching her do things. Anything. Beautiful, sophisticated, complicated Jinx doing it made it fascinating to him. Best of all was seeing her reading.

She'd seen him staring at her in the Titans Tower library once and laughed looking at him. "You're getting . . . ," she chuckled in surprise, "from watching me read?!" Wally could only shrug helplessly. Those delicate seeming fingers, actually conduits for hex energy that could level a building, wrapped around a leather bound volume of the greatest erudition of the last thousand years, her light gray face with an expression of total concentration, pink feline eyes moving back and forth absorbing the wisdom of the ages.

Sigh.

They developed an informal practice that she wouldn't start reading in bed till after he had. Otherwise he simply couldn't start to read anything with the sight of her beside him. They practiced it all the time. He read just as much as she did. And she adored his love of books. Heroes had always seemed like hopeless jerk jocks to the kids at the Academy. But that wasn't Wally at all. They recommended odd pieces of music, jazz, classical and indie rock to each other as well as books and foreign and obscure movies. It was a great challenge to both to present gems unknown by the other to him or her.

That was wonderful. Here, see what you think of this.

Great. Try this one.

He tried to focus on the intellectual pleasure of this as she unconsciously made her way atop him over a half hour. He wondered if their patterns in sharing the same bed were so ingrained that they naturally came together by habit or if this was another example of the deep connection that had led her to know that he was in trouble and to know to send out hex energy and break Slade's poison injecting apparatus. Maybe it was both. At any rate, he had his arms around her. But she was quite asleep and had to stay that way. He didn't allow himself even a single stroke of her skin with his long fingers. But it felt so incredibly good just to hold her. He put one hand to her magnificent rear, the other over her back and waited. Very quickly, their breathing fell into sync, her exhales and the rise and fall of his chest matched. Somehow, her fatigue almost seemed to spread to him and, in short order, he fell asleep as well.

Jinx woke the next morning feeling totally refreshed. The nausea and headache that acccompanied Slade's poison were gone. She got up expecting to still feel something. She started toward Wally's bathroom expecting to feel bad after the beaten down way she'd felt the day before. But it was all gone.

Hmmph. Whadda ya know?

Now, she regretted putting off Wally who'd obviously wanted to make love to her but had accepted her push away against the muscle of his shoulders with a sigh and a kiss to her forehead.

"If I'd known I'd feel this good when I got up . . . " she smiled thinking of what she'd have done with her speedster as the hot water of the shower sprayed over her. Oh yes. That there and then there and then . . . . She finished with a carefree giggle.

For his part, Wally left his quarters in his uniform and went looking for Robin. He found him up on the 14th floor at the communications center shaking hands with new arrivals. Wally approached his best friend with a smile and a pat on the back. Dick gave him an odd look. At least it seemed like an odd look. It was hard to tell with the mask. Wally was at least sure that Dick kept watching him. Between greetings to new arrivals and checking all communications lines for news of expected times of arrival, he kept looking at Wally. Finally he sidled up next to his pal at the desk.

"Dick. What's going on? You keep looking at me like you expect me to do or say something. Don't keep me in the dark. I mean, we are best friends aren't we?"

Again, Kid Flash could tell that Robin was staring at him with an odd intensity. He couldn't see his eyes but his brow was just a bit furrowed and lines appeared on his forehead. Finally Robin took a deep breath and smiled. He walked away to a quiet spot by the window waving for Kid Flash to follow. Kid Flash sighed as he got there.

"You've got me totally baffled here, Dick. What am I missing?"

"You don't really care, do you?" Dick nearly whispered through a smile.

"Dick! If there's something I did wrong or forgot to do, please tell me! You said I don't care. But I do. I care about doing this job right. If there's something I-"

Wally stopped because Dick burst out laughing. And it was very un-Dick Grayson laughter. Even in laughter, Dick was controlled, always throttled down to a chuckle when everyone on the team gave a belly laugh or doubled over wheezing at something. Always the guy who kept something in reserve for control. But this was free and easy, not a care in the world laughter.

"Please tell me what's going on, buddy!" Wally implored. "You said you liked that whole Tamaranean thing about comrades being the second most important relationships of your life. Don't keep messing with me."

Dick Grayson calmed to a smile before speaking softly. "You don't care about what I told you last night on the roof about . . . me . . . and Slade?"

Wally was incredulous. "That!?" he half shouted. "Jeez Dick I-"

"You really don't care that I was . . . " Dick's eyes went to his shoes.

Wally shook his head dismissively.

Robin sighed, patted his friend's shoulder and ran a hand through his spiky black hair.

"I'm such a fucking idiot."

Wally nodded sympathetically. "I've been saying that for years. It's about time you caught up," he quipped and flinched in expectation of the punch or judo throw that inevitably resulted from his getting a really good crack in at his pal. But it never came. He slowly opened one eye from his expression of pain expectation and saw Dick smiling at him. Dick just touched one green gloved fist to Wally's jaw.

"Maybe it is," chuckled Dick and he went off to welcome some more arrivals. When Kid Flash caught up to him he was at the communications center shaking hands with Speedy. He went over and welcomed Speedy too and got a pat on the back for taking care of Slade. They then got Beast Boy from the great room where he was playing a video game and went down to the combat simulations room. Speedy explained that he was here a day early for the party the next day because he was already on the west coast so why not. He discreetly omitted any mention of the Elias school for girls. Robin said a couple other invitees might arrive early too.

"Two on two first?" suggested Robin. The others all shrugged and glanced around. Sure.

"Okay, odds and evens," said Robin bringing one green gloved fist up and behind his head. "On three. One . . two . . three!"

All four teens, standing in a rough circle, threw a hand forward. Robin had two fingers out, Kid Flash three, Speedy four and Beast Boy one. Robin and Speedy, the evens, were one team. Kid Flash and Beast boy, the odds, were the other. Speedy grinned at Robin who flashed his usual, hypercompetitive, feral grin. Even Titans East knew that Kid Flash and Beast Boy both had reps of not fighting as hard as they probably could in practice and getting beaten by hard nosed Robin. Speedy had the same rep as Robin at Titans East. He and Robin went to one side of the combat simulations room muttering how they hoped it'd be a good practice and that they'd get an adequate workout. Speedy asked if they still had that elliptical trainer he'd liked so much. Could he use that afterward to get his cardio work in? Robin smiled and nodded.

But it turned out to be more of a workout than Speedy expected. He and Robin fought with all their usual ingenuity and tenacity but Kid Flash and Beast Boy had watched their opponents grinning and gloating and vowed that this time it would be different. Though Speedy and Robin fought hard, they were wiped out by the determination and elan of a red and yellow cylone that visited half the animal kingdom on them in green. Kid Flash and Beast Boy high fived and hugged at forcing both Robin and Speedy to tap out, tap the floor three times as a signal of surrender. Then they broke off into individual confrontations. Robin and Speedy had a fantastic fight, running, sprinting, kicking and punching, shooting arrows and throwing birdarangs all across the available space, two masters of combat and weaponry at their best and both highly motivated, looking to make up for their previous joint defeat. It was like a sword fight at the climax of an old movie about swashbuckling pirates. Wally and Gar watched side by side from the rail in the observation area, both fascinated. "Holy shit! We should've taped this," muttered Gar. "This is great stuff." Robin and Speedy each had the other down and almost out a couple times but neither endlessly resourceful teen hero could finish the other off. Both Kid Flash and Beast Boy marveled at their gymnastic abilities and facility at integrating their arrows and birdarangs seamlessly into the fight. Finally, to the shock of both Wally and Gar, Robin finally stepped forth toward a crouched Speedy with one green gloved hand out.

"Let's call it a draw," he said.

Speedy looked shocked as well, standing up slowly. "Um . . . sure. A draw," he mumbled skeptically before shaking Robin's hand.

Next up were Kid Flash and Beast Boy. "That was sooooo . . . not Batman," muttered Kid Flash as he passed Robin on the way into the combat simulations area. Robin smirked and gave Kid Flash a shove. To Kid Flash's surprise, Beast Boy gave him a tough fight, switching forms quicker and making more ingenious choices than he'd expected, especially making sly use of nearly invisible tiny species. But, finally, he caught a green hummingbird and quickly patted its head three times, the agreed equivalent of a knockout shot should Gar be in a small form.

After that, they switched opponents and fought two more fights each. For whatever reason, maybe trying to keep to the incredibly high martial standard they'd all set so far, everyone was on his game and the battles were especially spirited.

They were still laughing, kidding each other and talking about what they could have done and should have done in the showers afterward.

"I should've had you with that concussion arrow. You were down. I can't believe you got out of that!"

"Oh please! I should've beat you way before that but I missed that bo-staff swing after that jumping kick."

"Hehe! Robin! That was so funny when you jumped away from KF right into my T-Rex tail swat!"

"Yeah, we schooled you guys!" laughed Kid Flash leaning back against the hot, massaging shower spray. "You guys both tried to work alone and we were two parts of a finely honed red, yellow and green machine."

"Oh please!" Robin shoved him into the tile as much to disagree as to take the six jet massaging spray shower for himself.

They joked and pushed and shoved as they went from the showers to the new sauna that'd been installed off the men's locker room. Beast Boy couldn't stand the heat as long as the others and jumped out to stand under a cold shower. He endured the icy spray as long as he could then came back to the central tile floor area just as the others had gotten their fill of the 160 degree heat and met him there, kidding him about his lack of endurance. All were expecting to go back and forth from sauna to shower. None had a towel.

And that was how Argent saw them.

She came into the wrong room with her bag over her shoulder and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of four teen hero boys facing her . . naked. Her gaze went from left to right from one to the next, Speedy to Robin to Kid Flash to Beast Boy all equally shocked to see a girl in their locker room.

" . . . Oh . . . . . . my . . . . . . . God! . . . . . . . ahahahahaha" she gasped, her eyes getting bigger and bigger and bigger as her focus moved from left to right one after another till settling on the rightmost, green teen. She abruptly burst into laughter and ran out.

Beast Boy looked down. He took a single step after her. "I-I was under a cold shower!" he half shouted, his voice reverberating off the tile. "It-it was . . . cold! A cold shower!! Cold!!!"

He turned around to see his three colleagues smirking at him. This only made him even more furious. "Yeah, go ahead and laugh about it, you freaks! All three of you! It's not fair for a normal guy to be seen next to three complete freaks! Fricking tripod squad and I'm the one who took the cold shower!" He groaned then shouted one last time toward the hallway. "They're freaks, you know! All three of 'em, complete freaks!"

Robin tried to calm him down but Gar went off on a paranoid rant that Argent would tell Raven and it'd be even more impossible for him to ever convince her to be his girlfriend. Kid Flash glanced at Robin. Robin knew from the seriousness of his pal's expression without a word passing between them. He had no chance with Raven anyway. All three worked on Beast Boy, cajoling him and pursuading him, from shower to sauna to shower to sauna to shower. Perhaps it was just the force of three united voices. But at last he calmed down and stopped talking about Argent potentially gossiping about him and how it was unfair that he, "the only normal guy", as he stated it, of the group, should have the misfortune to be under a cold shower just before being seen like that. It helped the three teen campaign of pursuasion that it had probably been partly his own fault. Beast Boy had sparred with Cyborg in the form of a green velociraptor a week earlier. They'd continued even outside the locker room and Beast Boy had accidentally whipped his tail around such that he'd obliterated the sign hanging from the ceiling at the entrance to the men's locker room. To make it worse, his green tail had knocked off half the sign by the women's locker room so that it read -MEN. Argent naturally went to the other one where she'd come face to . . face with four naked teen boys. At last the verdant teen let out a sigh of resignation in the sauna.

Up above on the 13th floor, half dressed Jinx had turned on Wally's laptop on his desk and gone through his mail. This wasn't unusual. He welcomed it. She would sort out the junk and fluff and leave anything that came from Flash or Zatanna or Jay Garrick the very first Flash, "Grandpa Jay" as Wally liked to half jokingly call him. And there were also messages from the other Titans. Raven never sent anyone any messages and Cyborg seldom did. Robin sent a lot of messages that Wally termed "directives from our glorious reader". These tended to be prods to the others to be neater or eat more balanced foods or cautions about overtaxing the Towers's various heating, cooling and electrical systems. Be careful with your powers. Remember, the City's just a thousand yards across the bay. More than once he pleaded with Wally in the fashion of a kind older brother that he understood that Wally had to eat 6 or 7 meals each day but to please not take all of an particular meatloaf or chicken or casserole, to leave some of them for the others.

Starfire's emails were totally unpredictable. She might ask Wally and the others to explain some custom such as throwing rice at a wedding or the use of pumpkins at Halloween. But the next message might be a brief question asking Wally to explain how he has progressed in dealing with the loss of his Aunt Iris. The one after that might be a picture of a kitten that she had liked followed by a question about how Wally had felt as a boy having the neighbor's cat sleep on top of his chest. Why did he like it so much?

Beast Boy's emails to Wally were not unpredictable. There were two types. Hey! Check out this babe! With a link to a soft porn picture. And the other type of Beast Boy email to Wally was a snickering message about a site called with a link to a discussion thread. The email from Beast Boy that morning said, "Dude! Your fans and my fans are going at it again. Gotta love a cat fight!"

Jinx narrowed her feline eyes. I'll give you a cat fight, Gar. She clicked on the link and immediately descended again into a strange world of intense crushes on figures who were almost unknown to those fixated on them. It was a world of pretenses at familiarity with one hero and, yet, intense dislike of another hero with exactly the same goals and job just a different way of achieving them. It sometimes seemed as though each anonymous poster felt a need to knock down the other heroes to make sure their favorite seemed as elevated as possible. The posters had sometimes inscrutable names like Zf1xq5g, a huge Kid Flash fan, but mostly self explanatory ones. There was Bbgirl1 through Bbgirl16. Flashgirl1 through12, Ravenmaven, Savenit4Raven, HighonCy and 25 different Robinfans. Jinx had seen the site once before and been especially amused at the heated speculation about relationships among the team members. There was an ardent faction that was convinced Robin was Raven's lover even though he and Starfire had started to be open about their mutual interest. There was another faction that was convinced that Beast Boy and Raven were meant for each other. Jinx rolled her eyes. The response to her and Wally amused her. The posters didn't seem to like it as much as the relationships that were only theoretical. The fans of the other heroes tended to denigrate Kid Flash for having taken up with a former villain. And there was a certain faction within Kid Flash's fans who even claimed inside knowledge that the match of red and yellow with pink was not going anywhere. One poster, who called herself "MrsKidFlash" professed inside knowledge that he wasn't even dating Jinx anymore but didn't want the public to turn on her so he let himself be seen with the pink haired witch. She claimed to know what movies he saw, what music he liked and what foods he liked. Jazz and classical, no. Vegetables yes. Seafood, no. Jinx smiled at the notion of Wally of the outsized appetite not liking any kind of food.

Yeah, you know him girl. Uh huh.

She decided to check in on the latest exchange of insults by two of the regulars, MrsKidFlash and Bbgirl7.

Bbgirl7: Every time I see your fruity pretty boy one word comes to mind. Ballet! Ha!

MrsKidFlash: Yeah, whatever. Least he's not a frog. You'd get warts if you kissed Beast Boy.

Bbgirl7: Haha. Your waisting ur time anyway. Pretty boy's nuts for the pink bitch, I mean witch.

Jinx's eyes glowed slightly

MrsKidFlash: Yeah well I know the real story. He's free. And your guy can't get anyone.

Bbgirl7: Not true! Everybody says he and Terra were a couple. Kinda like your guy n pinkie, huh?

MrsKidFlash: If you're dumb enough to believe the stuff they put out to the media.

Bbgirl7: So, you know the real story, do ya?

MrsKidFlash: Uh huh. I see him every day. He goes to my school. He's got the other kids fooled.

Bbgirl7: But not you?

MrsKidFlash: Nope. They think that the orange hair is real. As if !!

Bbgirl7: But his eyebrows are like orange, too!

MrsKidFlash: Hello! Dye. Dye done at super speed.

Jinx sniffed. Not as vitriolic or funny as they sometimes were. She clicked to a different section of the site. Inside Info. There, posters were supposed to share information they'd found out about the Titans members. But the only actual inside information she'd ever seen there was that someone had overheard the other Titans East members call Aqualad by his real name, Garth. That fraud, MrsKidFlash posted more lies about Kid Flash. She had him as lefthanded, colorblind and suffering from ADD, none of which were true. Jinx sniffed again. Not even interesting falsehoods here. She tried her favorite section of all, Shared Images. She'd downloaded a dozen of these in the past, pictures of Wally and Dick smiling and talking at that pizza shop they frequented, Wally standing here, just starting to run there. And most of the pictures, taken by girls, had a female sense of what was interesting about her red and yellow clad boyfriend. They seldom disappointed her. The new contribution there today was the best yet. Jinx laughed and clapped her hands after playing it. It was a short, one minute clip of Kid Flash back in Keystone City, when Wally was not even quite 12 years old yet according to the time and date stamp. The preteen speedster had captured a bank robber and knocked out the much larger thief. He tried presenting him to the police arriving at the bank in such a way as to shield his sub 100 pound, red and yellow unitard clad body from view, at least from the waist down. But, whoever took the brief film had circled round him. Jinx smiled with delight at his uncomfortably self conscious facial expression, glancing with annoyance at the video taker as she circled around behind him. Jinx laughed out loud at the view. "Oh my god! Wally!" and clapped her hands in delight. She quickly downloaded that one. Then she made one frame the background image for his laptop, laughing at the expected look on Wally's face when he sees his little 12 year old butt all across the screen. Ha! These fans were good for a few things!

That done, Jinx finished dressing and went up to 14 where the new arrivals were coming down from the roof and where she thought she might bump into Wally. But it was Robin whom she bumped into as he was breaking away from greeting Arrowette and the Marvels, Junior and Mary. They'd all congratulated a bashfully smiling Kid Flash on taking out Slade and had had questions about it but he'd run off. Robin said that they should ask KF and that the speedster might have gone up to the roof with Cyborg to go over the T-Car's operation. But Robin said they had Slade's video of all the time that Kid Flash had been captured and that he might get the conclusion of it ready for everybody to see later. They expressed some interest in that and went off to the kitchen where Starfire was calling all the guests to go. Jinx took the opportunity to pull Robin aside.

"Can I look at that video of Slade's hideout from Wally's room right now?"

Robin bit his lower lip. "Um, sure. Just um, just go through the network connection to CommCen and look in the file labeled 'captured video'. You'll see one called Slade hideout. They're alphabetical. It's right after the Professor Chang stuff Cyborg hacked. But be prepared. It's pretty high octane stuff, Slade wanting to . . do Wally, Slade torturing Wally with electricity and gas and then once he's weak, beating him up personally. It's NC-17 stuff."

Jinx nodded, letting the seriousness of her expression convey the message that she was ready.

"And there's a ton of it," added Robin. "Around 5 days, a hundred twenty hours of footage. Some of it, Wally's knocked out or sleeping or out robbing banks for Slade so there's nothing to see but there's still way too much to watch at any one sitting. Wally'll be up on the roof for about an hour. If um, if I could suggest something?"

"Yeah?"

"You should try at . . . 87 hours and 25 minutes into it."

"Something good there?"

Robin nodded.

Jinx thanked him and went back to the room while a gleeful Wally was getting a tutorial in the operation of the T-Car from Cyborg. She turned on the laptop and went to the communications center network connection as Robin had instructed. She started watching the video. At first, her jaw was clenched in anger. But then, she saw Slade undress her guy and apparently ogle her unconscious, naked boyfriend, running glove tips over perfect fair skin.

"Oh gods," she muttered as she saw Slade tie restraints to face down Wally's wrists and ankles . And then her eyes went wide as Slade climbed up onto the examining table and pressed a palm to each side of Wally's . . .

"Hey, those belong to me!" she muttered in a futile spectator's protest. But her worst fear didn't come to be anyway as Wally suddenly woke and the screen showed a blure of pale skin attacking Slade till a syringe went into the side of his butt and Wally collapsed, limp again. She couldn't see Slade's face or single eye but she could tell from his body language as he stepped back from the table that he'd become deeply respectful of Wally's amazing abilities. And she somehow could tell nothing else was going to happen right then. She remembered Robin's suggestion and moved forward on the timeline to the point. She had to switch cameras. They weren't in the main room. They were in some kind of lab room. Slade was looking into a microscope while a scowling Kid Flash sat across the room from him. She pressed play and Slade spun on his seat to face Kid Flash. The picture and sound quality were amazingly good.

"Yes," Slade sneered. "And you were still holding out till she came along. You see what she did? She made you weak. She made you vulnerable."

Kid Flash shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Look at you," continued Slade. "An almost unstoppable physical force and you can't do anything, because of a f-female. She weakened you Cheetah. She turned you away from strengthening your powers, didn't she? She made you content and soft."

Jinx pressed pause and tested how high her eyebrow could go. "Cheetah? Cheetah?!? What the fuck?! He's got a cutesy name for Wally too? Oh gods. Can only imagine what he called Robin. Robby Poo? Bird buns? My little Chickadee?" She shook her head and hit play.

Kid Flash shook his head with contempt. "You don't know what you're talking about. You-you think you're on top of everything. You act like you've got all the answers and you don't know jack."

Slade stood up menacingly.

Kid Flash stood up, too. "Go ahead! Hit me, zap me, whatever! What good will it do you? You already have the hammer with the threat of killing her. You-you think you have the real story. But real life is going by somewhere else. You're stuck in this stagnant, stinking little eddy pool and you act like you know the truth about things in the roar of the main current. Bull! She didn't make me weaker. She made me stronger. We have different strengths and we give each other our strengths. I'm-I'm twice as strong for being with her. Maybe not in a whack job, rule the planet way that'd matter to you but every other way."

There was a standoff and, surprisingly, nothing happened. Jinx pressed pause again. Slender Wally was standing almost at attention not daring Slade to hit him but willing to take it if he had to. He was going to say those words even if he got his ass kicked. She sighed, thinking about them a few minutes. Hmmph. Twice as strong. Her thoughts raced. She didn't realize how long it'd been till the video automatically went from pause back into play mode. Jinx just shut it off.

"Twice as strong for being with me. And I'm . . . ," she muttered softly. Hmmph. Maybe. She considered it some more, considered Wally, considered what their being together had meant.

She wasn't the type of girl who endlessly examined a relationship. That sort of wallowing hadn't been encouraged at the academy. It wasn't practical. It seemed demeaning anyway. She always wondered about the self image of girls who felt compelled to constantly assess their connections to others. How much 'you' is there if you have to constantly worry about your relation to everyone else? It seemed weak. She didn't do it. She knew Wally didn't do it either. He lived in the moment. But Slade had forced him to explicitly think about it, hadn't he?

Twice as strong? Hmm. Well, he must be two or three inches taller and fifteen or twenty pounds heavier since we first got together last year. She smiled recalling the image of him at the pool the other day. Definitely stronger. But that wasn't what he meant. She knew it. It was the quiet confidence he had about him. It wasn't cockiness. She guessed it was him burning off the almost subconscious bad self image he'd built up in 15 years of being treated like shit by his parents. She noticed it after staying in his quarters a few weeks. He did the whole hugging thing all along but after a while there was no neediness about it. After a while there was never a needy tone to his voice. He was so much more man and less boy than she'd expected. And she liked it. She liked it very much. He could be silly fun, too. But mostly he was the most serious fun a young woman could have, books and bed and real emotional connection. He seemed to really enjoy their philosophical debates. Even if she tried to attack him personally to throw him off, he just looked at her with a smile as if he knew. He knew it was a game. He knew she didn't mean it. Because she'd never hurt him. And he was strong enough to let words bounce off him when he knew there wasn't real sentiment behind them. Twice as strong? She nodded slowly. Yeah, maybe.

So, naturally, she wondered, "Am I twice as strong since being with him?" Well, five seven and a hundred twenty two now. She recalled putting a bolt of hex energy right through one of the moveable barriers in the combat simulations room. The others had gaped at the crisp black edges of the hole in the super plastic covered concrete wall panel. Wally had sidled up to her and kissed her cheek grinning with delight at her display of power. She squeezed his butt, giddy with the feeling of power. But that was just physical maturity. She'd grown 2 inches the last year while staying in orange hair's room. You couldn't give credit for that to orange hair, though there had been that article saying that teens produce more growth hormone when they're happy. Maybe he was a vitamin to her, vitamin KF. He was also an anchor and sometimes a prod to her.

Neglected and scorned growing up, living with no limits on behavior except what endangered survival at the Academy and with the HIVE, Jinx was accustomed to lashing out. Minor disappointment? Curse. Lash out! Having to deal with ignorant fools who don't appreciate sophistication? Scream. Lash out!! Major disappointment? Fire a hex. Lash out!!! Her worth not being appreciated? Hex. Hex. Hex! Lash out and make them show respect via fear!!!!

Come on. You're better than that.

He would say it so matter of factly, the gaze from his blue eyes so direct and calm, less a reproach than a recitation of fact. But how did he know? Eventually, even this blame free declaration annoyed her. How was he so sure? If he didn't heal from just about anything in seconds, he'd have been crisscrossed with scars from her despondent or angry reactions at all sorts of different things. He wouldn't even have a rear end left. Even if the pain and the marks faded, how could he get seared like a steak on a frigging grill so many times and just repeat again, "you're better than that"? Eventually she couldn't let his words pass uncontested.

"Maybe you under-react? Huh? Did you ever think of that?" she responded when she'd reacted angrily to the words of Jump City Police captain Doyle calling her a likely criminal months after she'd reformed. "Maybe you let people walk all over you. Maybe you don't flex your muscles enough."

"I am flexing my muscles. I'm being strong enough to control myself, to not give my adversaries anything to use against me. I hate the stuff she said about me just as much as you hated the stuff she said about you."

"Annnnnnd you let them walk all over you, Wally. It's weak. You-"

"No it's not. It's strong. I'm strong enough to let it bounce off me and keep the big picture in sight, Jinx. You read that whole Thackeray book in the library yesterday. What kind of focus did that take?"

"Well . . . ," she didn't answer. She was very proud of her voracious reading.

"And you made your way in the world as a frigging 12 year old girl. You can't handle a few misguided words?! You?! Bull!"

"I . . . " She looked at him, unsure how to feel. Her mouth was open but no more words came out. It was a reproach but it was a compliment too. And the look on his face! It wasn't scolding. It was all "Come on baby. You can do it!".

He zipped to stand in front of her and hold her by the shoulders, his nose an inch from hers. "You're protected here. You don't have to worry about protecting yourself, Virginia," he whispered and rubbed his nose on hers. "Show us all how fricking great you can be."

Jinx's face had flushed with color. She'd leaned forward and kissed him.

She thought of that kiss now as she considered his line about giving each other their strengths.

Her upbringing or lack of it had formed her. It restricted the behavior open to her. Without protection and then always competing at the academy, she couldn't make connections easily. She couldn't be open about wanting connections. She'd pushed such thoughts and inclinations so far down for so long that even she wasn't sure any more how much she wanted social ties. But Wally was open about it. He admitted it. He always admitted it. He wanted to hold her to hug her, to kiss her. Even lying in bed, each of them reading a separate book, he wanted to press his calf to hers, at least to feel just a bit of the warmth of her, at least that, to feel the warmth of her even if she wouldn't let him touch her so that she could concentrate. He hugged his pal Robin all the time and the others only a little less often. His complete orientation toward contact and open affection might've seemed like weakness to her. That's exactly how young Jinx would've looked at him. But slowly she came around to another conclusion. She realized that he took the hit for all his teammates. He offered up his own need openly to everyone and allowed everyone else to admit their reciprocity to the degree that they chose without ever having to admit need. Dick loved Wally as a brother, too. But he was still so bound up in his Batman self-denial that he could never have initiated a hug with Wally. So Wally always did. Dick got to express reluctance and discomfort, or at least to pretend it. And he got the social contact he needed to stay sane. Jinx rolled her eyes. Oh yeah. You two are total best friends. You just hate friendly gestures from him. Suuuuuurrrre. She wasn't as bad as Dick. But Wally let her be as standoffish as she wanted, too. He was always offering contact and connection. She sniffed. Yeah, there was the insatiable lust, too, and that was part of the whole deal. The boy never stopped wanting to. But he always offered connection, too. A tender embrace, a direct gaze, kisses around the clock, handholding, the sorts of things that guys who're nothing but hounds don't ever offer.

They had intellectual connection, too. And it shocked her that he completely understood right from the start, though afterward she attributed it to Aunt Iris's influence on him. Still, it surprised her. She'd gotten so frustratingly accustomed to people not understanding. Academy members. The guys in the HIVE Five. Hell, virtually everyone she spent any time with. They thought a girl's tastes, a young woman's tastes, should reflect some ridiculous dichotomy, hopelessly caught up in fuzzy emotionalism or just female raunchiness. That half the human race should have no interest in the difficult truths of life or all the concepts that dichotomy ruled off limits to women, like honor and scholarly detachment were ideas that infuriated her. "Those things exist in this half of the human race, too!" she wanted to scream. And Wally got that. He didn't pigeonhole her into having only girly girl interests and he didn't think it was odd when she did have some. He trusted her intellect. But that's the way he was, trusting and optimistic. Crime fighting wasn't just a convenient way to express a bloodlust for vengeance with Wally. It couldn't be. He wanted connection. He loved to hug his teammates and just to touch her skin, to hold her hand if she'd let him. Little things like that pleased him and he made no secret of it. She wasn't sure if it was his neglected upbringing or if the need for it had been passed along by his 29th century father. She didn't care.

She'd told him her story. He knew she'd gotten through life by putting on armour, by making her iron will the surface that the world contacted when it met her. He would offer her a touch on the arm in the kitchen and a direct gaze, a smile. Take off the armor, he almost seemed to suggest. Maybe she wasn't in the mood for it. Maybe she felt anxious about something. She'd make some remark, or zap his butt. He'd say nothing. They'd see each other again later and he'd ask about the book she was reading with a touch of her shoulder or while intertwining their fingers. And maybe that time she felt likewise. He was always open to emotional connection. What a bizarre boy he was! So smart in science and book knowledge but a dope about some other things and then, sometimes, way more wise than he should be. Weird boy with his 29th century genes!

Weird, but the right one. They weren't the same person. They weren't the same personality or attitudes. But they were perfect complements, two strong wills that desired similar things, that flexed and relaxed in alternating rhythm. They were even matched physically. Slender girl and slender boy. Odd hair and odd hair. When they slept, most often, he held her to him, her feet pressing on the tops of his feet, his kneecaps against the backs of her knees, hips together, his one arm snug at her chest, his other under her neck and the speedster's reach so long that he'd intertwine his fingers with those of her outstretched arm, his warm breath at the back of her neck all night.

He didn't say the four letter L word that often, but often enough. More importantly, he showed it. He endlessly desired her. He made her feel special. As strong and intellectual as she was, that mattered. Day by day, step by step, touch by touch, he helped her exhale and relax her defenses till the world started encountering the intellect and sophisticated perspective of a proud young woman and not the steely force of her repelling will. A week before the whole thing with Slade, she'd done an interview with a reporter from one of the Jump City alternative papers. And it'd actually been kind of fun. Kid Flash was there with her, mostly at Robin's insistence to make sure she didn't say anything inflammatory. But she'd been witty and charming, intellectual and confident. When they got outside the building, Wally immediately pressed his lips to hers and when their lips separated frantically whispered "Youweregreat!Youweregreat!Youweregreat!Ilovedthat!Leteveryoneseehowfantasticyoureallyare!!"

She ran it through her head. She was good, by that point, at slowing down his words when he spazzed and blabbed at high speed. She made fun of him, of course, and liked the interview when it came out. But what stayed with her was how Wally'd gotten out of control with joy at her showing her best side to the world.

She smirked now thinking of how she'd practically torn his suit off him afterward. Sigh. So devoted and so hot. The skinny guy to end all skinny guys. He even hurt. He even felt her hurt.

She'd never had the urge to recount her troubles growing up before being with him. The way she saw it, science said that bones were stronger at the point of old breaks that healed. The bone was denser and stronger. All the shit she'd gone through growing up, all those psychic fractures and breaks; they were points where she'd grown stronger. They were part of her and her strength and the world that made her go through that could just fuck off and deal with the strength she'd gotten from it. They weren't going to get her story. They weren't entitled. But . . . there was one night, lying there in his arms afterward in the darkened room, he'd idly asked. Must've been tough. Wanna tell me about it? Well, alright she decided. Just for him, just because he asked, not out of any girlygirl impulse to dwell on it! No frigging way!! She told him about one of the worst experiences. Maybe being held in his arms spoooning made it easier, not having to face him but still able to feel him and his warmth. She told him and she stammered a moment recounting. That shocked her, that she could still feel the anger and the hurt, not like then but still with some power. How the fuck does that hurt so much?

Just a six year old girl with a whole schoolyard of kids circled around shouting and stupid teachers not doing a thing to stop it. She told him and while feeling it all anew she also felt his whole body go hard and, ironically, . . . that . . . do the opposite. Every speedster muscle was flexed and she could feel his breathing change on the back of her neck. She knew the code of what every gesture or motion the boy made actually meant by that time. His body was a language in which she was masterfully fluent. And he was . . . hurt. Her eyes went wide in wonder.

He's . . hurt?!

She finished her pariah's tale but it was a minute or so before he relaxed. Then he kissed the soft skin of her neck and pulled her even a little tighter to him. A week later she told him the story of another incredible experience she'd had to endure. His breath on the back of her neck came in fits. The boy was positively wounded and there wasn't pity with it and he was smart enough to never talk about it outside of his bed. He had chances, too. She watched very closely. Beast Boy was talking about kids getting picked on by other kids for being different. He asked if the others had any stories like that. She expected him to tell Gar to ask her. But he said nothing. It was between them. Just like their pleasure. It wasn't for anyone else. It couldn't be brought up in idle conversation. It was Jinx's pain. But her pain wounded him, even old scarred over pain. What'd Zatanna said in that conversation a week before that? Oh yeah. Exception making. Love is exception making. She never went into detail with anyone else. Ever.

Eventually, she asked him to do the same. He declined. She insisted.

No.

Yes, you have to!

No.

Yes! Do the same for me!

He sighed. She knew he didn't want to. He could be so stoic for such a social boy. It fit in so well with the whole hero thing. But she knew he'd give in. He did. He told her of how his parents' total neglect was slowly crushing him as he was growing up. He told her of the ridiculous extremes of their indifference to his welfare. And as she listened to him detail their intentional disregard for their beautiful little boy, she felt first a tension then a building feeling. Rage. It was a growing rage toward them. She remembered with a vengeful glee carving lighting bolts in their arms with hex energy as a warning at his aunt's funeral. She recalled the expression of pain on his father's face. Should've zapped him harder, she decided. Ha! You didn't hurt enough! Hope it's still sizzling, you prick! Fucking asshole not even speaking to a 7 year old boy for 4 months!

What. The. Fuck!?

A vulnerable skinny little rail of an orange haired boy and they hate him because of the betrayal he reminded them of!? Did he make himself a bastard?! Fucking assholes! She let out a low growl and realized she was starting to shoot hex energy out her fingertips and made a conscious effort to relax. She relaxed her breathing and focused her mind on other thoughts but mostly the fact that she also hurt for him.

She was on the brink of a decision, thinking about things while he was up with Cy on the roof. She picked up her Titans communicator, switched to phone mode and made a call. After two rings, a familiar voice picked up.

"Hello."

"Z. It's me. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"


	18. Switch

Argent stopped outside the door to the room. It was like all the other doors in the hallway, navy blue with just a small silver number. That was the decorating scheme of the whole tower, navy blue with silver accents. Very nice, actually, she thought even if all those hard shiny surfaces were a bit impersonal. Without conscious plan she'd come to this particular door. She'd walked idly along the hall then stopped at that one. She could figure a couple of the others out. There was a smell of brimstone at that last one and on the other side of the hall the silver number on one looked like someone had bothered to polish it. The next door down from where she was standing had been closed on the wire to an ipod earbud so that one bud was still outside the door. Mmmm hmmm. Not hard to figure.

She glanced at the room at the end of the hall. Cyborg's. She knew that one. She smiled to herself. She knew that one. It'd been at last year's party. She hadn't had any thought of it. But then she'd seen Arrowette shy away from him, almost been afraid to dance with him. That'd been like waving the red flag in front of a bull. A challenge? Any boy is a challenge? Ha! They knew better than to challenge her in any way back in New Zealand.

But he was a lot of fun and kind. And he was her type. Big. Muscular. She'd met enough skinny boys in the Wellington punk scene. New one every other weekend. Enough that she hadn't been put off by walking in on those skinny Titans boys this morning. Kind of fun, actually, she chuckled softly. Who'd have thought? She chuckled again at the recollection. God. Skinny boys with . . . . Well, good for them. Still, Cyborg! And she hadn't known till the crucial moment. The anticipation was a kick. Original equipment! He was a lot of fun, kind of a cornball but a lot of fun. She sighed. Why'd we both walk away so quickly? Afraid? Both of us?

She mulled that over while peaking into their room. They weren't. They weren't afraid. In the whole young hero game who was doing as well? Who was doing even close to as well? Anyone? She looked around the room as much as she could from the slight opening of the doorway. Hmmm. A vase full of roses near the door and beyond that a bed looking just about the opposite of made up and lots of books all around it. Hmmmph.

Before she could decide what to think about the room she heard a voice in mid conversation on the phone and leaned back against the hallway wall and listened to half a conversation.

"I want a sanity check, Z"

--

"I can't ask him Z! He's the only person I can't ask. It's about . . . "

--

"Yeah."

--

"Yeah. How'd you guess so quick? I thought you'd think I was crazy. I was afraid to call you. I-"

--

"I know but-"

--

"What?! No! Of course not. I mean not that it couldn't be true."

--

-all the time. It's fantastic. But he . . does his part and-and I do mine to-to make sure I don't-."

--

"Why? Why would that be what everybody thinks? You know, Romeo and Juliet were 15. He's gonna be 16 tomorrow and I'm four months older than him. Why can't we-"

--

"Idealized fiction? If people think that's an idealized fiction, then they're fricking morons. They both die because they can't figure a way around their stupid families. That's idealized?"

--

"Well, not every young romance is meaningless puppy love. But I didn't want to ask you what most people will think, Z. I want to know what you think. You've got it together like no one else I know. You dated fricking Batman for god's sake. Just tell me."

--

"y-yeah . . . "

--

"I-I know he . . . "

--

"Th-thank you. Oh my god. Thank you, Z. I can't tell you how good that is to hear coming from you. I . . . yeahsorrybyeseeyoutomorrow!"

Argent heard the click of a communicator being turned off and then Jinx muttering to herself, " . . . nothing bad can come of . . . " Argent stepped quickly down the hall and just caught a glimpse of a smiling Jinx run out of the room and the other way down the hall.

Jinx sighed now. Have to see him. She ran up to the 14th floor where she found him with his back to the hallway leaning against a column watching Beast Boy, Cyborg, Captain Marvel Jr. and Herald play a video game. The silliness of the video game made now totally the wrong time. She smiled. That's okay. Shouldn't till tomorrow anyway. She smiled at the certainty she now felt about it. A day didn't matter. She smirked. You are mine orange hair. She jogged up to 14 where she saw him standing at the edge of the great room looking the other way watching Beast Boy, Captain Marvel Jr. and Speedy play a video game. She snuck up behind him and squeezed then did her best Slade imitation. "What sweet buns you have, Cheeeeeeeeeetah."

He didn't turn around. He just sighed and his neck went limp.

"So," he muttered. "You started watching Slade's video?"

Jinx snickered then shifted back to her best version of the villain's deep, menacing monotone. "Yessssss Cheetah. What a wassste, you letting that f-f-f-f-f-female have this great ass all to herself. How 'bout giving a villain a break, Cheeeeeeetah?" said Jinx as she squeezed his butt through his Kid Flash uniform and then burst into laughter before Kid Flash spun around.and grabbed her hands.

"I knew it!" he said half angrily, half laughing. "I knew that as soon as you saw that stuff that you'd give me a load of crap about it. I knew it!"

Jinx grinned ear to ear then adopted a solemn expression. "I don't think I can let you go on missions any more. Too dangerous. All the villains want you, too, pretty boy!" she said bursting into laughter again and poking at his hip with one finger and bursting into laughter. She enjoyed his quiet fuming and eyerolling at this. She always did. Then she waited a bit and spoke softly.

"Hey. I saw you tell him off. You said that you were much stronger for being with me."

He nodded.

"Twice as strong."

He nodded again. "Yeah."

"That's what you told Slade, twice as strong. Did you mean that?"

Kid Flash looked her right in the eye. "Sure. My ability to endure verbal abuse alone has tripled." he quipped with a deadpan expression, then broke into a grin before his expression went completely serious and he nodded.

She looked back at him just as seriously. She put her hands on his muscled shoulders and he, in turn, wrapped his around her waist.

"Ya know . . . ," she whispered. "being around an orange haired freak's been good for me, too . . . . . . Who'd have guessed?" she finished with a chirp and smiled at him.

He touched the end of his nose to hers and rubbed softly as he grinned at her.

"I'm twice as strong too," she whispered.

They said thank you to each other with an extended kiss. No one else in the world existed for them.

A minute later they finally separated as Argent cleared her throat as loudly as she could for the second time right behind Kid Flash, glancing down his back past Jinx's embracing arms.

"Right! It's not time yet for 'im to blow out the candles. Not till tomorrow, not that either of you two would've known it. Get a room for god's sake!"

"We have one. Mine," said Wally.

The others around them all chuckled. It seemed a few more invitees to the next day's party had arrived. Along with Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel there were also Jericho and Aqualad. In addition, all the Titans were there in the great room, too. There were handshakes and not introductions but renewals of acquaintances all around. Mary Marvel? Argent. Argent? Jericho. Jericho? Captain Marvel Jr. Captain Marvel Jr.? Kid Flash.

And Kid Flash and Jinx glanced at each other. He unconsciously licked his lower lip. She touched her palm to his yellow clad abs. They both wanted to so very much. So. Much. But they glanced around and could see that everyone was watching them. Everyone was expecting them to slink off to his room not to be seen for a couple hours. Usually they didn't care what the Titans thought. They went to Wally's room and made love. But it was a bit disconcerting all those new eyes watching them so closely. They didn't want to seem like a couple of rabbits so they stayed with all the others. And just then Firestorm landed at the Tower. Kid Flash greeted him with a big hug and effusive thanks for showing up. He introduced Firestorm to Jinx as an old friend of his. Jinx took one long look at him. He was a few years older than them and wore a garish red and yellow uniform with the top of it open like Wally's. Only this guy didn't just have hair spilling out of it. The top of his head was apparently on fire as actual flames whipped gently back and forth above it.  
"And one of those tabloids always calls him flame haired," she smirked nodded at Kid Flash.

"Yeah, I, uh, kind of got the little hero dude beat in the 'do department," he said glancing upward at the top of his head which, as always, was somehow on fire yet not hurting him.

"Little hero dude?" laughed Jinx.

"I'll tell you later," promised Wally.

Then he went off and introduced Firestorm to all the other guys and a lot of laughing and horeseplay broke out among them, all goodnatured fun. With no planning toward that end at all, it started to break up into two groups, male and female as Argent started up a conversation with Jinx and they made their way over to a group with the Titans girls, Arrowette, Mary Marvel and Batgirl. But before the split was complete, Kid Flash zipped over to Argent's side.

"Um, look," began Kid Flash and finding it progressively harder to look her in the eye. "I'm sorry about this morning. I . . . I mean, . . . . .that . . . never happened down there before . . . . I mean, not us being but . . . you seeing . . . . . . I mean . . . well, I apologize."

Argent chuckled. "I was the one in the wrong room. You're supposed to be able to walk around like that."

"Still, um . . . . sorry," he said to her shoes and, with relief that he'd sort of said something, he zipped over to the guys by the giant tv all talking about the Tower's video setup while Argent drifted to the dining room with Jinx to join the other young women.

Kid Flash had to put up with the usual "Hello little friend!" greeting from Aqualad and the usual bone crushing hug. And there were the usual pointlessly cutting remarks from Speedy. But the place was full! The place was full of people like him. Young heroes. A whole society of just young heroes u there! Super speed? Oh, that's cool. I control water. Or. I'm a master this or master that or I use nuclear fusion at will. He wasn't a freak here. He was one of the guys. He liked it.

He laughed at an unsuspecting Beast Boy suddenly finding himself gripped from behind in a friendly embrace by Aqualad that threatened to squeeze the life out of his five foot three inch self. When Garth finally put him down, Gar staggered away toward the kitchen. There, Argent was talking and laughing with the others. Beast Boy's ears went up. She wouldn't say anything about seeing . . . . Would she? And as Beast Boy watched from a distance, he could see her apparently start to tell a joke. She put one long pale squash on the counter. She continued her joke. She put a second even longer pale squash on the counter. She spun the yarn of her tale some more and then put a squash that was longer still on the counter. The other girls were listening wide eyed. She put a little green cucumber on the counter and said something that caused all the others to erupt in laughter.

Gar rushed over to Raven's side. "What's that all about?!" he asked frantically and gesturing to the counter.

Raven's eyes went side to side. "Uh, hello? You're the militant vegetarian, shouldn't you be happy that we're setting up vegetarian stuff?"

Gar fumed but his expression shrank from accusatory to defensive.

"Just keep in mind that temperature affects things."

She looked at him as if he was insane. "We'll, uh, we'll keep that in mind, Gar. Thanks for the science update. When you cook, temperature affects things. No kidding? Isn't there a video game you should be playing?"

Gar wandered away just in time to see Kid Flash take off with Mas y Menos right behind him. They'd come with Bee, who'd locked up the Titans East tower and set the security system before leaving. They were two hyper bundles of energy all the way over, begging Bee to go faster. They were going to go running with Senor Kid Flash.

And the enthusiasm was mutual. Kid Flash had studied spanish just as they'd studied english. At the previous year's party they'd met and he'd shown them how fast he could go but they hadn't interacted much. Bee had suggested over the video conferencing screen, a week ago, that it'd be good for them if Kid Flash could tutor them in the use of super speed. Kid Flash had immediately assented. The idea of being the mentor instead of the protege intrigued him. Cycle of life. Give back like people gave to you. Not an isolated freak but part of a society of speedsters. Very appealing. He sprinted down the Tower stairs, measuring his speed so that Mas and Menos could keep up. He could tell at a glance that they'd grown quite a bit in the year since he'd seen them and lost a bit of that baby fat shape they'd had. He got out the door of the Tower and started across the bay immediately looking over his shoulder wondering if they could run across water. They could. They grinned as they did so and kept grinning as they sprinted after still much taller Senor Kid Flash, who had also grown in that year's time, following him through some Jump City streets to an interstate. There, Kid Flash slowed a bit to let the boys run alongside.

"Now show me your best, guys! Let me see how fast you can run!"

The two good natured speedsters grinned at this request and poured on the speed as best they could. Twenty miles east of the city. Twenty five miles east of the city. Thirty. Thirty five. Forty. Fifty. And then, he burst away from them. Kid Flash had been running right beside them and he could tell that this pace was their best. They were grimacing and grunting with the effort. He gave a short burst of his best speed and left them in his dust. Even running three thousand miles an hour looks like nothing when someone else is running 10 times that fast.

He circled back to Mas and Menos and waved for them to stop and gave both guys hugs and told them that they were terrific.

"You really think so, Senor Kid Flash?"

Of course, he assured them and reminded them that they were the fourth and fifth fastest humans on the planet. And he urged them to stop calling him Senor. Too formal. He ushered them over to a picnic area just off the highway and they sat down and had a long talk. He asked them about how they were getting along in the hero business. Were they getting all the help they needed from their team?

They said they were getting used to it, but that it was tough at times. They're great celebrities in their native Guatemala, they explained, and feel a responsibility to represent their country well. They said their teammates were great to them and that Speedy and Aqualad always made time for them. Kid Flash smirked at that in a way that he was sure they didn't understand. He could see Aqualad being a good mentor but playboy Speedy? Ha. It was a front. At least partly. Wait till I see him!

As he returned to listening they said that they felt more and more comfortable dealing with their positions as heroes. Kid Flash smiled, greatly pleased at how things were going and the attitude they showed. He patted their heads and told them they could give him a call any time they felt like it, regarding any matter speedster related or not.

"You know, I started out as a hero just a little younger than you guys are now. I was just a little guy. So-"

"Si, Kid Flash. Senorita Jinx sent us a picture of you," chuckled Mas. "Did they not feed you?" he joked and they both laughed at his sigh. And Kid Flash thought he heard a snickered spanish "super skinny" from Menos.

"Yeah, well, Senorita Jinx likes to make jokes at my expense."

"She's funny."

Kid Flash nodded. "She's great. Now how 'bout a quick lesson in using your speed?"

Both Mas and Menos nodded enthusiastically.

"You should use your abilities with your arms, too, and not just those of your legs. The ability to create powerful winds is very useful," said Kid Flash and he instantly whipped up a wind with his right arm that blew all the dust and debris in a narrow area away with hurricane force.

"You see, a lot of the people we speedsters fight don't see us very well. If you go by them, there's a flash of color and a rush of wind and they don't really see us. Sometimes, they don't even see the color. There's just a rush of wind and they know from other effects that we ran by 'em. Well, sometimes you can fake a crook or a villain out, if you've already sped by 'em a couple times by using your arm and creating a wind effect that seems just like you running by 'em. Watch."

Kid Flash ran out of site then zipped past the boys almost invisibly but with a rush of air, on their right. He circled around the town beyond them and did it again, speeding past Mas and Menos on their right, then he circled around the town and this time created a blast of wind to their right but never running there. It seemed just like the first two times but Kid Flash suddenly materialized to their left instead. Mas and Menos were impressed. The rush of air was so nearly identical. What crook wouldn't think it was the same phenomenon? And they can't see things as fast as we can! So, Kid Flash spent a while on the deserted scrub brush edge of some little town teaching the boys how to make all sorts of different wind effects. More focused windmilling of your arm made a more focused blast of air. Fingers spread or tight together created slightly different effects. Windmilling your arm with your body directly behind the arc of it created a different effect from your arm being out to the side, as did windmilling just your forearm.

Kid Flash showed great patience with the boys, asking them to try all these things over and over till they mastered them but without pushing, trying to be like Flash had been to him. And they thanked him profusely afterward for taking so much time with them. He deferred any credit. It's nothing. Just like Flash always did.

Kid Flash also checked to see what other Flash tricks they could perform. He found they had some rudimentary ability to vibrate their bodies but couldn't pass through walls yet. They could create friction heat to repel anyone trying to hold them. They had that one down pat. He worked with them on vibrating their molecules as they accelerated past the sound barrier to avoid sonic booms. They tried it a dozen times before getting it down pat.

When the trio of speedsters finally roared back across the bay and up the Tower stairs, an hour and a half had gone by. Mas and Menos were ecstatic and chirped to Bee who met them in the hall about all the lessons Senor Kid Flash had given them and what a great guy Senor Kid Flash was. Bee thanked him with a hug and a whisper in his ear. And over her shoulder, Kid Flash smiled overhearing them decide which hero to approach next.

Menos! Let's get Senor Beast Boy! He's always fun!

Haha! Yeah! Maybe we can convince him to make himself into a whale again and give us another ride around the bay.

Gar gave them one quick ride but he wasn't feeling all that much like playing with them. He tried to convince himself that Argent wasn't talking about him but his suspicions kept returning. A short while later, he came upon Kid Flash and Jinx in the hallway outside his room talking about Mas and Menos. He stopped them and frantically pointed toward his door. Kid Flash opened it and Gar practically pushed them inside.

Jinx looked around. "What a mess. You're a way bigger slob than he is," she said pushing a finger in the middle of Wally's V-shaped yellow clad back.

"Too bad the size of your slobbiness doesn't matter too," muttered Gar.

"What?" she asked.

"Never mind."

"What's this about, Gar?" asked Wally.

"You know what it's about!"

"Uh . . . no, Gar. I don't," said Wally looking around at all the clutter and suddenly feeling like a neat freak.

"This morning . . . ," he paused suggestively raising an eyebrow to no avail. " . . . . Argent . . . "

"Oh. Come on Gar!"

"Easy for you to say!"

Jinx was perplexed watching them go back and forth.

"Gar!" Wally sighed. "It's no big deal."

"Not for you . . . Porn Flash! And you didn't just stand under a cold shower!"

Wally shook his head. "I'm sure she knows about shrinkage," he said and thought of a proof. "Jinx," he turned to her. "You know about shrinkage right?"

"Shrinkage?"

"See!" shouted Gar.

Wally leaned toward Jinx. "A guy's equipment . . . . . . . . after he's in cold water or a cold shower . . . ," he raised an eyebrow suggestively.

"It shrinks?"

"Aaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!" Gar groaned.

"Like a frightened turtle!" declared Kid Flash whereupon Beast Boy turned himself into a giant tortoise and retreated into his shell before changing back to human.

"See!" he nearly shouted. "And now Argent's going around talking about me. She's gonna tell Raven! Blah blah blah like a green light switch blah blah blah like a green mouse. See!"

"Jesus, Gar! Calm down!" shouted Jinx. "Argent hasn't said a word about you!"

"She . . . she hasn't?"

"No. Do you think girls go around talking about that stuff all the time?"

" . . . . you don't . . . ?" The skinny green teen was genuinely surprised.

"No! We don't."

"Then I still have a chance with Raven!"

Jinx hated to do it, but she had to. "No, Gar. I don't think you do. Raven thinks you're a nice guy. Hell, everyone does. But I just don't think she's all that into you. I-I'm not trying to hurt you Gar. In-in fact, it's the opposite. I don't want you to hold out false hopes," she said putting a hand on his shoulder. Gar let out a deep sigh and slumped back to sit on his bed.

"You really think so?" he asked softly.

Jinx nodded and he let himself fall back on the bed.

"Why's everything so hard for me?! I lose my parents. I get turned green. Terra gets turned to stone then doesn't want to have anything to do with me. Now Raven . . . . . . . . ! I've got fangirls all over me you know. Don't laugh. You should see all the bras and lingerie I get asked to autograph, all the times girls ask me to sign their . . "

He let out a deep sigh and his eyes seemed watery.

"But I never touched one of those girls. Never. Not one! Three months ago when I was Grand Marshall of the Jump City St. Patrick's Day parade, there must've been a dozen girls holding up posters with their phone numbers on 'em. Call me, Beast Boy! Beast Boy! I want to wear your green! 555-whatever. And there were that many again tossing papers and shamrocks and clovers at me with their phone numbers. But I didn't take any of 'em. I just smiled and waved from the front of the parade. Green teen leading the green, like I was supposed to. I didn't take any of it seriously be-because I-I wanted Raven . . . I . . "

He looked so despondent, Jinx actually started to reverse herself.

"Well, I'm not Raven, Gar. Maybe-"  
"No." He let out a sigh so deep that Wally and Jinx watching could imagine seeing his illusions escaping with his breath.

"You're right. I've asked her. She says no. There's-there's no mystery about it. I . . . I don't know. Maybe it felt like not trying would make the 'no' official. Accepting it was closing the door. And where does that leave me?"

Jinx bent over and planted a kiss on his cheek next to a tear track.

"It leaves you as a cute guy with a lot going for him and all the time in the world to find the right girl for him. You're even younger than orange hair here," she said gesturing to Wally with a thumb.

She stepped back and Wally leaned forward and hugged Gar.

"Some day, maybe really soon," he began softly, "you're gonna meat the right one for you, Gar and you're gonna look back and think how lucky you were to suffer a temporary disappointment that led you to her."

Gar slowly raised his eyes to look at them over a minute's time.

"You really think so?"

Wally nodded emphatically and gave Gar another hug whispering in his ear, "Come on, Gar, show the strength that made you the leader in stopping the Brotherhood of Evil. Everybody here loves you Gar."

He lifted Gar up off the bed with his hug and held him up for a couple minutes. Jinx raised an eyebrow part way through in question. Wally shrugged slightly. However long it takes. He felt his green pal's breathing gradually going to a normal rhythm and felt Gar go through a series of sighs as he regained his composure. He patted his pals back over and over till finally he stood on his own two feet and wiped a couple times at each of his eyes. He thanked both Wally and Jinx profusely. They talked to him and patted his back and, as his natural energy returned, joked with him and then finally when normal Gar was back, they all left his room together. He left them and went up to the 14th floor. Wally and Jinx watched him go with an arm around each other's waist.

Jinx turned to him with a smirk.

"You know, the stuff he was saying earlier?" She shook her head. "Guys are so insecure about their equipment."

He smirked back and looked down at the velvety soft skin at her bust shrouded in delicate black lace. "Uh huh. And who has the most perfect breasts but was convinced they were too small?"

"Um . . "

He patted her butt. "And who has the most perfect rear on the planet, the envy of every statue in every museum in the world but was convinced hers was too big?"

Jinx bit at one finger. "Um . . ."

He smiled. "Yeah. So, let's not go off on just guys for insecurity."

Jinx smiled. "Fair enough. Okay."

They glanced at each other. They wanted to. They could have. But, again, decided not to go back to his room and make love. After dwelling on Gar's disappointments it would've seemed odd to so easily be in the mood for that. They went upstairs to the great room and went off to the other boys and girls respectively.

Kid Flash got a laugh from the other guys for pointing out that with a color scheme of red, green and gold, Robin was actually a rastafarian. Robin quickly denied this but was bombarded with requests for some ganja. Robin shot back with a line about KF being a speed freak but the tide was against him as Aqualad noted that this explained why Robin didn't want anyone to see his eyes, followed by a series of bone/blunt/chronic-arang jokes.

And, something triggered Kid Flash's recollection. He approached Robin now at the edge of the group.

"Hey! Remember our bet about that Mathison case?"

"Oh, jeez, Wally not now."

"Come on, Dick."

"I don't know."

"Come on!"

Robin shook his head. "Oh alright," he said with reluctance and rolled his eyes at Wally's big grin. A minute later they were in Robin's room and Robin was stretching his arms into the sleeves of a skin tight red and yellow unitard, crestfallen about how it fit.

"Why's this still so tight? You're taller than me. You're like mr. Sprinter butt and calves. It shouldn't be so tight on me."

Wally looked back over his shoulder from where he stood in front of the mirror spinning the utility belt about his red shirted waist. He laughed.

"You've seen me take it out of the ring, haven't you?"

"Yeah," said Kid Flash suited Robin while trying unsuccessfully to pull the shrink wrap tight suit off his abs and away from his butt.

"It stretches like crazy but that's really the normal size of it, small enough to fit in the ring. Flash invented the special stuff it's made of so that it'd fit anyone."

"I don't count this as fitting," said Robin moving beside Kid Flash to look at himself in the mirror. "And I don't like this dance belt thing you wear underneath."

Kid Flash pulled at the thighs of his green leggings. "Well, I don't like the stupid old fashioned jock you wear either. Help me with the mask. How do you glue this thing on?"

Dick sighed and showed his pal Wally how to glue the Robin mask around his eyes. Wally then helped Dick get the Kid Flash cowl in place with his black hair spilling out over the top of it. Dick ran his now red gloved fingers through his hair to take out the spiky look and make it look wind blown like Wally's always did.

"Hey, I should go spiky then. Is there hair gel in one of these compartments?"

Dick nodded looking at his reflection in the mirror wondering if it was wise to let even fellow heroes see his unique turquoise colored eyes. But in the end he sighed and just went with it. He'd agreed to it. If Wally figured out the solution to that puzzling Mathison case before he did, he'd switch with him at the hero get together. And Wally had done it. Dick regretted not setting better ground rules. It was practically cheating to read through 2437 pages of documents and run, literally run, down a hundred leads in a few days. But he had to give Wally credit. That silly little note indented on a post-it by the writing on the sheet above it had broken it open and Wally had seen it but the police hadn't. Wally's laughter pulled him out of his thoughts. Wally was running has hands up through his orange hair creating spikes with the special hair gel like Dick always did.

"Ha ha ha! Oh my god. This stuff's practically bulletproof."

"Not quite. But it's the strongest stuff there is."

Wally returned a small tube to a compartment in the utility belt then turned to Dick as he spun it about his waist.

"How do you tighten this?"

Dick shook his yellow cowled head. "You don't."

"What? What do you mean? It's never loose on you. How do you adjust it?"

"You don't. It's on a special tungsten platinum band sized for my waist. You've got a smaller waist than I do. I'd have to cut off some of the metal to make it fit you."

Wally raised an eyebrow hopefully.

"Are you kidding? No way. You'll just have to deal with the utility belt being a little loose."

"Okay. How 'bout these pants then?" asked Wally tugging at the calves and then seat of the green leggings he was now wearing. "I think I'm getting a wedgie from this outfit and I'm losing circulation in my shins."

Dick sighed. How to call Wally a weird shaped freak without calling him a weird shaped freak?

"You're, uh, you're such an extreme speedster body, Wally. What can I say?"

Wally gave a self-deprecating smile. "Yeah, I'm kind of a weird shaped freak."

Dick sighed.

"Come on, let's go see everyone."

"Give me a second," said Dick tugging at Wally's yellow cape to stop him. "I look like I need to work out and I'm 2 percent body fat! Let me get used to showing everyone the exact shape of my hip flexors and gluteals and rectus abdominus and obliques and lats and trapezius and biceps and triceps and quadriceps and hamstrings and deltoids and-"

"Okay, okay, Mr. Anatomical Knowledge showoff! The suit's tight. It's really not bad at all once you get used to it. It fits perfect and doesn't restrict you in any way. Besides, you're in great shape and in our business it's not such a big deal."

Dick nodded and followed Wally up to the 14th floor and the great room where almost two dozen heroes were talking and joking and socializing. But all of it ground to a halt when they saw a suddenly taller and orange haired Robin grinning ear to ear followed by a sullen looking shorter black haired Kid Flash approaching them.

Wally could not resist and shouted at the top of his lungs, "TITANS ASSEMBLE!"

The other heroes gathered round all comic curiosity, looking front and back at the two Titans in their swapped uniforms. Beast Boy, in particular, got a kick out of seeing Robin wearing a skin tight Kid Flash suit. He doubled over laughing and asked Wally how he'd gotten Dick to agree to it. Wally started explaining the bet. He was still doing so when Jinx approached them. She went right up to Dick in the Kid Flash suit squeezed his butt and covered his mouth with hers in a big french kiss as he frantically tried to wave her off.

"Hey boyfriend," she cooed at a disoriented looking Robin when she finally let him go to the laughter of the other heroes. But the laughter didn't stop as Starfire stepped forth and grabbed Wally, the orange haired boy wonder and gave his butt a similar squeeze before giving him a minute long french kiss that Wally tried desperately to break out of but couldn't due to Kory's incredible strength. Jinx laughed at the shaken look on Wally's face when Starfire finally released him and everyone enjoyed a great laugh. Just a few seconds later, a beeping was heard from the communications center and a red light flashed at the console there.

"Incoming call from . . . police headquarters," said Dick immediately interpreting the coded flashing pattern of the lights.

"Got it!" shouted Wally, and being a Flash even attired as Batman's sidekick, he easily beat Dick and the others to the giant screen there. To Dick's mortification, he pressed the series of buttons to turn on live video communication and then shouted at the top of his lungs, "TITANS! SILENCE!"

Dick wasn't sure what to do and stopped just off screen as Wally, wearing his suit, started talking to the Jump City Police Commissioner.

"Sorry about that Commissioner," said Wally as he started repeatedly pounding his green gloved right fist into the palm of his green gloved left hand. "It's like herding cats sometimes with these other Titans. Drives me nuts. Even more, I mean."

"Um, yes. I can imagine, Robin. But, are you alright? You look . . . different. Your hair!"

"We just got back from facing one of Batman's and my most dangerous villains, The Stylist," said Wally still pounding fist into palm. "He deployed an insidious array of extensions, pomades and permanent waves against us. We may never get the curls out of Beast Boy's hair! And he tried to confuse us by making us look like each other. Nefarious villain!!"

Was that snickering in the background. The Commissioner couldn't tell. "Well, what I wanted to ask is-"

"Don't worry commissioner, much as I might want to look like this, I know that a certain dour appearance is expected of me. I'll have Raven cast a homely spell."

The Commissioner looked momentarily confused but these Teen Titans were so odd sometimes. He just soldiered on.

"-What I wanted to ask is . . . . "

The Commissioner paused. Kid Flash had moved into view behind Robin but in a very odd way. He had his back to the camera. Well, back was being kind about it. He was bent over with his back to the camera in that tight red and yellow suit of his so that he wasn't even visible above the waist. And now he was lightly slapping . . . Well, "Robin" seemed to suddenly notice and mutter something angrily at "Kid Flash" but the teen speedster didn't move.

"-what-what I wanted to ask is whether everything's okay at the Tower. Jump City airport traffic control reports a dozen different craft landing at the Tower and we see a lot of lights. Is there a fight ongoing?"

"No SIR Commissioner. Just a bunch of rambunctious teen heroes gathering for the goshdarndest party we can throw for our speedster teammate."

"Yes. I-I see him, um, sort of, right there. Well, thank you Robin. Don't hesitate to call us with any news."

"Don't worry. I won't sir," said Wally suddenly adopting a Shatner-esque tone of galaxy shattering solemnity. "I'm . . . constantly . . . . . vigilant. My . . . teammates make . . . fun . . of how . . . uptight I am. They say a . . . lump of coal up my butt would . . . come out . . . a diamond. But I say that . . . . if that . . . . . diamond helps . . . cut . . . the . . . glass . . . of crime . . . then it's all worth it."

" . . . . . . . . . . . .Um . . . yes," said a perplexed Commissioner and the transmission stopped. Immediately, Dick leaped at a laughing Wally knocking him to the ground and pummeling him with punches as his own laughter started to join that of Wally and all the others. Wally could barely cover up for his gasping laughter and after just a few swings, Dick's punches became pretty ineffectual.

"A lump of coal up my butt would come out a diamond?!?!"

The crowd of young heroes roared at the repeat of the phrasing. Wally still could not respond but only laugh as much as his breathing permitted. Beast Boy, too, was on the floor laughing uncontrollably.

"And a certain dour appearance is expected of me, huh? I want to look like you, huh?"

"Don't forget . . . ," Wally gasped out amid laughter, "the part about . . . fixing it . . . . .by having Raven . . . cast a . . . homely spell ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!"

The surrounding heroes burst into more laughter and Dick could only shake his head helplessly as he got off Wally. But where 14 year old Robin at the start of his time as Titans leader would've been genuinely angry at this and frantic at being mocked, Dick could see that it was in a spirit of fun and the other heroes patted his back as a good sport and smiled at him as one of them, not really diminished at all by the joking.

"What about you?" demanded Wally as he got up. "You pretend to be me and you practically put your butt in the camera!"

Now the surrounding heroes laughed at Wally.

"Funny how he just accepted that, as natural, wasn't it?" said Dick to a big round of laughs. "Almost as though someone might think a guy wearing a uniform like this," he said tugging at the yellow second skin over his chest, "would be some kind of exhibitionist. Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah."

All the other heroes guffawed some more. Wally didn't protest. He took his medicine. And away from the others as they were changing out of each other's uniform, Dick made Wally promise to tell the Jump City Police Commissioner the next day that it had been a joke. Wally did better than that and immediately upon changing to his uniform he sprinted across the bay into the city and met the Commissioner at his office where he explained and apologized for his joke. Back at the Tower everyone was talking about plans for that evening.


	19. Flash Mitzvah and popping

Jinx sighed contentedly.

What a night!

She pushed backward against him as she took a deep breath, feeling his warm skin against hers from head to toe as she did so. Not quite head to toe. She could feel his breath against the back of her neck. She gave a squeeze to his left arm across her breasts with her left arm and sighed again. It was the day. It was his birthday.

She opened one eye and saw light starting to fill the morning sky and filter into their window. This would be the day. She closed her eye again and smiled contentedly. It was right. Sooooo fricking right. And that was that. If any asshole wants to tell us that we shouldn't or that we're white trash for being so young or figures that . . . She looked down past the fair skin of his arm at her taut, Titan trained abs. If they want to guess that, let 'em keep guessing for months before they figure out they were wrong. She sighed. Irritation gone. There was no place for anger today. Today was the day. And she knew what he'd say. She felt certain. He was feeling the same things. It was there in the look in his eye. Even after they got back from the club and were making love. That look. On the verge of something, something wonderful.

She reached back with her left hand and enjoyed the shape of his body and the feel of his skin against her palm, stopping as always at what she now routinely called his "only contribution to society". She smiled remembering that planning meeting a month back. Robin finished pointing out their assignments on a map for protecting the Jump City street festival. And Wally had pointed to another street intersection and said "And here's where Jinx'll stand in her black lace dress of interlocking pentagrams and make snarky comments about the odd taste of passersby."

She immediatley pointed at the corner of a third intersection. "And here's where a crowd will gather and," she pointed to the opposite corner of it. "Here's where Wally will turn his back to them and make his sole contribution to society," she said with a pat of his butt. "Just make sure they're in the light, okay? It's what you're there for." Starfire laughed and Raven even sort of snickered as Wally rolled his eyes.

She gave him a pat now. Ahhhh speedster body. Maybe it was her villain beginnings. All the top hero types, Superman, Batman, Aquaman, were barrel chested hypermuscular types. Ultra jocks. Sure, there was Wally's uncle now adoptive father. But he was the exception. And it wasn't just the villains who tended in the other direction. Everyone in her world, the outcasts, the folks in the alternative world tended to be the skinny guys, the geeky misfits and such. Wally was like the best possible skinny alterna-dude. She gave his butt another pat. Okay, he was more than that. He was totally built for speed, every ounce of him. She sighed again and thought of last month in the Tower library, him stretched out on the couch, all abs and buns and muscles and energy in his red and yellow suit and yet reading that book. Gods! What a combination. She'd had to cross her arms over her chest when Cyborg came in from the hallway. Wouldn't change a thing about him.

Although. She smirked, feeling it against the small of her back. Gods Wally! She broke into a full grin now. She remembered making fun of him, picking up her communicator with a serious expression and saying it was urgent that she call a doctor. It's lasted more than four hours! Ahahahaha! He'd rolled his eyes at her doubled over laughing on the covers. And she'd laughed more at him taking it sort of seriously and making excuses, just in case.

Look, that's only if you take one of those pills. And you didn't see me when I went to the bathroom. I wasn't . . . and-and besides, I'm a Flash.

She grinned some more now. He wasn't a saint. He fired back sometimes, but only in private. He completely got it. There was a her, a him, an us that was just for us. All the shields are down with the person who'd never hurt me, the guy who'd take on the whole world and rob the city and ruin his life if that's what it took to not hurt me. That person can see the me I don't show to the world. He got that. And, in a funny way, he did the same thing. He presents the same happy go lucky, kind of geeky face to everyone else. I'm the only one who sees the guy who almost HAS to get it. I'm the only one who can make him feel that. Jinx sighed contentedly. Last night was the best ever. That song he played when we got back!! Gods, that was perfect. Perfect! Almost like he knew I'm going to! And then everything afterward! Well, okay, the boy wasn't made just for speed. Another smirk.

And a thought occurred to her. That's another reason why Hinduism's so much more civilized than all the different variations of crap that came out of the middle east with their stupid denial. Oh don't do that. Oh no. Don't give each other joy. Just, um, feel guilty about anything you like and remember that you're dirt. Because . . . GodAllahYahweh loves you! Uh . . yeah. Sure.

Sigh.

Let it go. It doesn't matter and there's no point in worrying too much about stupidity. Thank gods Wally wasn't into that crap, she thought then smirked. They'd have kicked him out anyway. Supernaturally powered speedster with genes almost all from the future and a total sex freak, too. Hmmph. So freaking flexible! Must be part of the super speed deal, she smirked. Like to see anybody but that Elongated Man character try those Kama Sutra things he does! Even if somebody could, they wouldn't be able to tongue at super speed or vibrate their . . . . like he can. How can I ever be with another guy now? What a conversation that would be the first time. Soooooo . . . let me get this straight. You can't vibrate it and that . . . that's . . . all you've got? Seriously. That's it? You don't have, like, some temporary dwarf equipment condition or something? Average huh? Graded on what curve? Oh, did I just crush your self esteem? She smirked. You'd be an impossible act to follow orange hair. But you're only with me. If somebody like Speedy could . . . ?! Oh gods. He'd cut a swath through even more of the populace. She smirked. She knew she should find him a bit sleezy, but somehow, she sort of liked him and his voracious, omnivorous appetite for action didn't bother her. Sort of like Wally but with everyone as a target instead of just her. At least he was sort of honest about it. Archer on the make. The longbow you should get to know! No qualified applicant turned away! Have quiver, will deliver. No, Have quiver, will make you shiver! She chuckled softly. How many of the wait staff did he get last night? Gods, that's a great club.

She smirked anew recalling the looks on everyone's face at the door. All that debate at the Tower. Let's go here! No, let's go there! No, lets's do this! No. No. No. And finally Wally shouts down half the young heroes on the planet and tells 'em to trust him and go to that place. Everybody changes to normal clothes to try and pretend not to be the freaks we are and Wally leads everybody down the end of that L shaped alley to the unmarked black door. And off a cliff. Jinx smirked recalling the exchange Wally had with the huge, coke machine of a bouncer only visible through that little slit in the black door.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Metal slit opens.

"Yeah?" came forth the decidely unimpressed voice after looking at skinny, orange haired Wally Allen in his black suit and black and white print shirt.

"Tell Jabba the fricking Greek that I'm here with my friends."

Two beady eyes squinted out the door in shock. What?! Then the slit shut. A minute later, young heroes glancing all the while at each other wondering about the wisdom of Wally's greeting, the slit opened again.

"Greek says we don't need no skinny ass, underage losers with clown hair in here."

"Oh yeah? Well tell fatso he can go screw himself if he can ever find it!"

The metal slit shut.

"Um, what'd you just do, dude?" demanded a worried Beast Boy speaking for the rest of the heroes.

"He just screwed up our plans,"' said Argent from the back. "That's what he did."

But Wally was nonplussed. He nodded slightly over his shoulder to the others.

Got it all under control.

Jinx had laughed. The others were about to shout at him and slap the back of his head for his being an idiot and ruining their plans. But, she'd been there with him before. Most exclusive club in Jump City. If you were a young billionaire and you just moved into Jump, if the NBA all star game was in Jump that year and the players were looking for the best club, if you were the creme de la cool of Jump, you went to the Greek's place. And in an age of minimalist one word club names, the Greek had 'em beat. His didn't even have a name. That was part of the mystique. People had to refer to it by their fond recollections of it. That place with those girls! That place where we partied with the MVP! Or that place with the incredible food and the crazy drinks! It didn't have an address either. There was no number on the door. But its vague renown had spread across the city and was spoken of in hush wanna be there whispers by the 98th percentile of cool in Jump City. They didn't make the cut.

Finally, the door flung open and a huge, bowling ball of a guy six and a half feet tall and almost as wide, with, black hair and carefully cultivated 3 day beard in a shockingly well fitted silk suit appeared on the other side of the doorway. Latin dance music burst forth from the darkness behind him.

"Ahhhhh, Carrot!" the huge man shouted. "Come in you little son of a bitch!" he waved and they all followed Wally inside.

"And, if we were being turned away earlier, we would have known that how?" Raven had muttered.

The Greek hugged Wally a moment, enveloping him and asked how many. Twenty two, Wally had replied meekly. Ah, no problem, said the huge man and he clapped his hands and told some waiters to bring them to one of the medium size tables.

The young heroes all looked around assessing the place as they went. It was all red and black leather, and everything was the highest quality from glasses to silverware to plates to the floors and walls, everything. It was like an oasis of the highest tax bracket in the middle of a gritty section of Jump. And it was huge, almost illogically large. It took up that whole floor of that building, all smaller areas half broken off from a larger dance floor with bars all around. Everyone got seated and Wally explained to the others that he had saved the Greek's life and had a standing invite to drop by whenever he wanted. The music was a little less loud where they were seated but the lights were just as dim. Gar loved it. Somehow his green came off as perhaps dark skinned latin perhaps who knows what in the light of that club but not green. Though the ears were a little off, no one gave him a second look, none of the usual gawking. Food came quickly and plenty of it, amazing lamb, shrimp and lobster and something they did with chicken and honey on sticks for appetizers. And after Wally quickly huddled with the Greek, nodding over at his apparent dark skinned latin friend making jokes in the corner, a vegetarian tray arrived with sweet peppers and exotic specialties that Gar pronounced the best he'd ever had.

There were hours of dancing and talking, socializing with sort of co-workers, maybe more like workers at other branch offices of the same company, people doing the same job who would understand what other people didn't. They could unwind with each other like with no one else. The hours flew by in laughter. Jinx danced with Wally a bunch of times to the pounding dance music, mostly latin but also DJ played top hits in the next room. She talked a lot with Argent, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Raven and Mary Marvel, too, unwinding and sharing after a drink or two each, not quite confessional but revealing and fun. There were some questions about her and Wally and she didn't hold back. They asked about his hyper, braggart rep. She said it wasn't true. Well, it was a little bit true. But she told 'em about how his mild super speed high and his new excuse. The other teen heroines laughed.

"Oh, come on Jinx! Comic books!"

Laughter all around.

"This is real life Jinx. The world of Marvel comics is just fantasy. He does know that, doesn't he?"

"Of course. He just . . . He just says that he sees parallels with the character of Spiderman, because-"

Louder laughter all around.

"Does he spin webs, Jinx?"

"Can he walk on ceilings?"

"He can run on water."

"Ooooooooooo"

"Hey! Hey! Seriously!" Jinx took a gulp of her drink. "Peter Parker is kind of a nerd and he's treated like dirt so when he goes out fighting crime as Spiderman-"

"Jinx! Those are comic books! You think that Marvel company draws up surveillance camera footage?"

"-so when he goes out fighting crime as Spiderman and being his real, powerful self, it's such a rush that he talks like a wiseass and shows off. Wally . . "

"Wait! That's his name? Wally? Kid Flash is a-a Wally?!?"

The most laughter yet.

When it finally died down, Jinx continued.

"Look. I had the same reaction at first. But the name means something totally different to me now. It means . . him. It means . . " she had a smile of lascivious recollection mixed with affection and they all hushed. "Anyway. Wally was treated like . . like shit by his family. I'm so glad I . . . well, never mind. Anyway, so, when he became Kid Flash and got to feel the joy of that, well, yeah, he went overboard at times. But, Brahma! He's not a hyper dope. Believe me. I know. I would not be with a hyper dope. I wouldn't . . . . with a hyper dope. I-I know everything about him that a girl can know about a boy. He's not like that."

This led inevitably to more questions about just what he was. She answered some. She knew she might have to. She saw the girls all eyeing him a little more seriously this year than last but it didn't matter. Still, she protected him and their 'us' but gave up anything else. She smiled at him as she was talking at one point. He smiled back from 50 feet away. He was going off to talk with Dick. He came back a little later in as good a mood as ever looking at her with that look. The invitation look. You want to? That night, every time he looked at her part of his smile was the invitation look. Though she felt the same way, she demurred. No storage rooms for her. Leave that to Speedy.

The night only ended when a couple of the younger heroes started yawning a bit too much and a few others found that their super powers did not include alcohol tolerance. Robin carefully shepherded the group from the Greek's club back to the Tower in two trips and soon enough the conversational and dance pairings at the club were tried out at the Tower as sleeping arrangements were decided.

Jinx smiled again now. Gods, Beast Boy! And she examined her own reaction. Almost a bit motherly, she realized. Hmmph. Next thing I'll be making sure he puts on a warm hat and mittens when he goes out in the cold. Maybe that was just the quality of the affection she had for him. It was definitely affection, anyway. Arrowette, huh? Go Beast Boy! Go Beast Boy! Go Beast Boy! She smiled and let herself doze off still spooning with Wally, her last wisps of thought being that she couldn't deny anyone the chance for this.

Wally woke with a sigh, slowly realizing where he was, holding Jinx in his bed, the two of them lying diagonally across it with sheets only haphazardly covering them. He wanted to cover her but didn't want to wake her. Hmmm. He pondered his options. Then he spun the index and middle fingers on his right hand, off the edge of the bed by hers and kicked up a short lasting breeze in the narrow confines of his room. The sheets billowed up like sails and came down gently across the pink haired beauty. Wally smiled. It's good to be a Flash.

He pressed his lips to the back of her neck and took a long slow breath soaking in the smell of her skin. He sighed contentedly and with his left eye looked past her soft skin and some pink tresses to the sky out the window. It was a crystal clear blue that would almost make you think you could see all the infinite beyond it. That seemed appropriate to him, Jinx part of his view of forever. This was going to be a great day and what a night that had been!

Ha! Totally fooled everybody at the door to the Greek's club. The look on Dick's face! Wally grinned still holding Jinx. He remembered dancing with Jinx and dances with Argent and Batgirl as well. So weird, the way they were all looking at me. They-they know there's no chance and yet . . . . Cy must be right.

Wally remembered going by Mary Marvel and Argent to the bar and getting looks like, well, the S.T.A.R. Labs MRI couldn't have provided any more information. It had surprised him. He found himself next to Cyborg at the bar. Cyborg had seen the quizzical expression on his face as he approached.

"What is it?"

"Huh, oh, nothing." Long pause. "Do I look very different to you than I did last year?"

"You?" sniffed Cyborg. "Nope. Still a skinny ass manorexic masquerading as a real-"

"Hey!" laughed Wally. "I've got some muscle. Seriously! Do I look that much different?"

"A little different I guess. Why?"

"The-the girls." He glanced around and saw Batgirl and Wonder Girl talking to each other while looking at him. "They . . they all look at me different, even different than last year, like-like they're more interested. But . . . they all know about me and Jinx and how we've been a couple. Shouldn't it go the other way?"

Cyborg shook his head, made up to match his skin and with his eyes behind sunglasses to hide his red one. "You have commitment halo now."

"Co-what?!"

"Commitment halo." Cyborg chuckled. "Girls like to see that a guy can make a commitment. Aside from whether he's attractive," he tapped his own impressive chest, "or not," he tapped Wally's through his print shirt, "girls want to know if the guy can commit. Can he be faithful. Even if it's subconsciously, you're making big points with all of them. Help Jinx away from the villains and stay tight with her for a year? You've got a commitment halo around your head."

"But . . . shouldn't it push them away? I'm with Jinx and that's all there is to it."

"Doesn't work that way Wally. You might break up with her tomorrow."

Wally shook his head emphatically. Amazing. And then another thought occurred to him. "Hey, Cy, how do you know this stuff anyway?"

"What, do you think I only know circuits?" said Cyborg finishing his drink with a gulp and walking away leaving Wally to stare curiously after him.

That was a surprising conversation. But after more dancing and drinking and laughing there had been another one later on.

He'd watched him off and on during the night as he kept watch over his flock, looking around the room checking on everyone, being the leader even there. Even the independents and heroes from other teams. They were in Jump City; they were his responsibility. They smiled back and forth at each other a couple times. I know what you're doing Dick. And a sheepish smile back. Yeah, it's true.

Finally later in the evening, it seemed like the right time. Wally tugged on Dick's shoulder pulling him away from a conversation with Hot Spot and nodding toward the bar for Dick to follow. Dick didn't feel like another beer but trailed after Wally anyway. But Wally kept going past the bar and Dick had to try and keep up as Wally traveled a serpentime path through a kitchen door and then past two cooks and a waiter down a hall and then out into another alleyway on the other side of the building. Dick looked around at the darkened dead end between two buildings with trash blowing gently about. To their left, a waiter was smoking a cigarette on break. They didn't understand why the waiter looked so surprised then breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't hear him mutter about "the other redhead" and getting fired if he couldn't be found another 20 minutes. They might let that pretty girl off. She could go off with . . . Hey, wait! Did she go off with him, too . . ?

Wally nodded to the right and he and Dick walked over by a bricked in window.

"Good night to be the leader huh? Everybody happy."

Dick nodded with a tiny smile.

"Good for you man!"said Wally and he wrapped his arms around his slightly embarrassed pal.

"W-wally!" Dick gasped for air.

"Oh, sorry," said Wally releasing him and patting his shoulder. "Just wanted to congratulate you," he added and they traded thank you and you're welcome smiles. Right after they did, the skies opened up and in just a few seconds it was raining hard. Dick quickly saw that there was a large air conditioner sticking out of the window a floor up and just a step to one side that would provide cover and he put his back to the brick there. Wally looked around and seeing no other option squeezed under the same air conditioner facing toward the wall with one foot between Dick's and one outside, just a few inches away.

"Jeez Wally!"

"Where else can I go? I want to talk to you. Don't worry. I won't go all Garth on you."

Dick rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, the waiter on his cigarette break was watching them from beneath another air conditioner equidistant from the door and wondering. This redhead too? Thought he was with that punk girl? And while he confirmed no blips on his gaydar, the two hero teens were talking.

"Yeah, I'm gonna, Dick. I mean, I intend to. But I want to know what you think."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you."

"Is she?" He gestured at his stomach.

"No! Of course not. I wouldn't just be asking because . . . "

"Wally. That's what people'll think. You . . . 16 and her just a few months older. Duh."

"Well that's not it."

"Fine. I accept that. Just be ready for a lot of people staring at her to see if she's starting to show."

Wally sighed and then nodded.

"But seriously, why run this by me?"

"Because . . because you're the single person in the world most like me. But you're not me. You can see me and understand without necessarily having my blind spots. You deal with the same weird identity thing as I do. You understand how our lives are on a different schedule than normal people. You won't laugh off my being 16 years old because you know where we are. And-and even though I make fun of you, the differences between us are all things I-I respect. I couldn't be the team leader. I just couldn't. And you just take it all in stride. I guess I could ask Flash but . . . I don't know. He's almost on a plane too high up there. It seems weird to discuss . . personal stuff with him. And he already had a whole life when he got into this business. You're-you're like me. And you know me and her. So . . . . ?"

"It's nuts." said Dick. And Wally's eyes went wide in disappointed shock as he almost fell backward. Dick caught him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

"I know that's what I should say," Dick continued. "But, hell, I think I'm more scared that you're gonna get to drive the T-car. I don't know why. I'm on the outside. I don't see the two of you once you step inside your room. But I . . think it's right. I think it's right. Part of my . . . my Bat Boy training as you call it, was all this detective work on reading the room, reading people, reading expressions. Did someone not belong? If not why? What made them incongruous in that situation? Besides all the gym work and combat training I spent hours and hours, probably hundreds getting tutored by Batman watching film and being taken to these odd high society Wayne Corp. social affairs just for practice. He'd ask me all these questions rapid fire. What does that expression mean? How did he react to those words? What does that mean? Is looking up to the left recollection or making up a story? He had it all down to a science. But as scientific as you try to make it, there's art to it. You have to judge who's the real fighter of a group of guys facing you, who'll run, who will stick with whom. But I see you and Jinx . . . and I see," he intertwined the fingers of his hands. "I'm no expert. I mean, I've had fear. I've been aggressive. I can judge those things. I'm kind of guessing with a guy and a girl. But if the question is do I think it's nuts or do I think it'll work, well . . . " Dick never actually answered. He broke into a big smile at his best friend that said everything. He was wrapped in another hug at super speed.

Eventually Wally let him go with a smirk. "Don't think I don't realize your ulterior motive in this."

"My ulterior motive?"

"Come on, Dick. There's not a notion somewhere in the back of your head that, if we make it, it paves the way for you and Kory?"

Dick tried hard to suppress a smile but couldn't quite keep it under control. Wally guffawed and Dick started laughing too. "Well, I suppose there is that angle."

"Uh huh. Uh huh!! It's okay glorious leader. We'll be the guinea pigs and the trailblazers. Let fucking CNN and and the rest of the press jump on us. If you and Kory follow suit it won't be such a big deal.."

"Thanks in advance, Wally. If it all goes down like that, thanks. For me and Kory."

Wally smiled. "So, um, you said you've had fear. When was that? I always feel like chickenshit compared to you."

"Now and then. It happens."

Wally nodded with a dismissive expression. Suuuuuuure it does. The rain was letting up now and the two incognito teen heroes went back into the club. There were a couple more hours fun there and then a few hours fun back at his room. He somehow remembered to play that song that Flash had suggested to him. He'd played it on Flash's record player. Actual vinyl! God! May as well be papyrus. And that one was something like 50 years old. Too Young. It-it was perfect. It said everything about them. Wally immediately downloaded it when he got back to the Tower that day. When Jinx heard it that night she immediately adored it. They made love over and over, interrupted only by a communicator going off.

BEEP—BEEP—BEEP

Wally had looked over his shoulder at the beeping, flashing communicator on the nightstand beside his bed. Jinx laughed and shook her head. "Well! At least stop pouring the honey!"

"Sorry!" Wally tipped the jar upright and gave Jinx his I-have-to-answer-this look. He pressed the series of buttons for video communication and saw a frantic Beast Boy with the great room in the background behind him.

"Wallydude pleasepleaseplease you gotta do me a favor!" Beast Boy was frantic.

"Sure, Gar baby, what?"

Beast Boy momentarily lost his bearings on being called "Gar baby". Gar baby? And what was with Wally, that silly grin on his face and his his hair all messed up and . .

"What're you doing with that big jar of honey?"

Wally glanced down. "Um . . . making baklava."

Gar paused, perplexed. Greek pastry at 2 am? In his room? Why would he be . . . ?

"Never mind. You gotta do me a favor, Wally, now! Arrowette's on her way down to my room. I'll do anything you want but could you please clean my room. Now. Please!"

"Gar?! What am I the cleaning service?"

"Wally!!! Please. I don't want to look like such a slob to her!"

Wally nodded and dropped the communicator. Jinx caught it on the fly after watching a naked blur disappear into the next room.

"Gar! Don't hang up!"

Beast Boy was walking along the hall now. He couldn't get there too long after Arrowette. He said he'd just be a minute. Now he was looking at Jinx, apparently looking down at her lying on the sheets of Wally's bed.

"I'm-I'm here."

"Look Gar. It's okay to want Wally to fix your room. But don't try to be something you're not. Show her you, the best you, but show her you. Remember how you felt when we beat the Brotherhood because you kept things going?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, keep that pride in the back of your head as a quiet underlying confidence when you talk to her. Not a boast or arrogance, just a quiet sense of pride that you were the key hero. You're really cute Gar. No bullshit! Just talk a little less than you usually would and remember that you're that guy. Quiet confidence! Got it?"

"Um, yeah. Sure. Thanks-thanks Jinx."

The picture cut out. Wally smiled at her from the wall across the room. "You know, I'm the guy who took out Slade. I say that not as a boast or with . . arrogance but with a quiet underlying confidence. I-"

Jinx hit him with a pillow that he didn't try to dodge as she laughed out a "Shut up!"

He sped to her side and kissed her. "That was pretty cool to try and help him. What a . . nice person you are!"

Jinx zapped his butt with hex energy interrupting his chuckling.

"Yeow!"

"Nice? Don't ever call me nice. Nice is good without any courage. I've been bad and sometimes I'm good and when I am I'm sure as hell better than 'nice'."

"Yeah well, we'll see what good those words do."

He moved in close and smiled. "How will they work for me?"

She pulled him closer and they kissed.

Wally smiled again now first thinking of Gar and then thinking of Dick's blessing as he held Jinx in his arms in his bed. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered what he'd said. Was there anything that gave him any kind of pleasure that Jinx wasn't part or all of? Books, jokes, sex, even the heroing now. How he thought of everything was in relation to her. If she wasn't there what-what life did he have? Not this one. Not the way he lived now that he loved so much. This one was all about her. Could there even be another one? He forced a sigh to calm himself and tried to consider it but quickly dismissed the idea. It would be impossible. That's why it didn't matter, in a way, what Dick said. He was ready to ignore a negative reaction or at least work past it. So, maybe the positive response didn't mean quite as much as it might have. He'd already decided.

He sighed spooning there with her. Her skin was so soft. He sighed again. What an amazing body. Her loose hanging goth clothes sort of concealed it even if they gave glimpses of her skin here and there. They didn't let people who encountered her realize what an amazing body she had, slender with that incredible butt and those perfect little breasts. What a fantastic slender figure she has. She could be displaying it and have half the world at her feet, but she doesn't. She doesn't. Hmmph. He felt a little guilty about his own uniform. Course there wasn't anything else to do. But she dressed her attitude and didn't flaunt what would've had everybody wanting to be on her side instead of fighting her. He sighed feeling something like admiration.

When she stirred, he tickled Jinx and laughed with her when she woke and they made love again and showered and made love, the processes not entirely distinct, and then joined the gathering group of young heroes in the kitchen for breakfast. Jinx thought it was funny to see some of these people not in their freak suits or attempting to look normal in suits and evening clothes but in pajamas and bathrobes. Wally helped Cyborg make waffles and dole them out to the nearly two dozen heroes. At least, Cyborg thought he was being helped. He was a whirling dervish of waffle making, filling plate after plate at the counter in response to Wally's orders. Three more helpings, Cy! Two more Cookie! Fire up a couple more Cy! But at some point, as the orders kept coming and he kept whipping up batter and cooking up more waffles, Cy wondered why he wasn't making more headway. He started counting all the demands Wally'd made, tallying them in the air.

". . plus 3, plus 2, plus 4, plus 3 more is . . . WALLY!!"

Wally zipped to his side with a platter empty that had just been full. "Yeah, Cookie?"

"Don't yeah cookie me, Speedo. I've already made 27 servings for the 20 other people. Where-?"

Buuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrp.

Wally let out a belch that also seemed impossible for a hundred forty seven pounder. Cyborg advanced on him and Wally sped off in his Titans jammies back to the great room. "Hey, a couple of them doubled up, too!"

"Don't chase him, Cyborg," said Raven. "You'll never catch him and it's just as well that he ate all those waffles at the counter when you had your back turned. You know what it's like for the women here to watch him eat? Appetite without ever having to be contrite."

The day went on with some birthday party preparations being made but mostly young heroes enjoying the rarity of free time with peers. It wasn't spent all that momentously, video games and fights in the combat simulations room, joking around and exploring the Tower. Jinx and Wally kept looking at each other with big suppressed grins each wondering if the other was about to say something. But both kept quiet. Wally went over and hung around with Garth a while. He wasn't sure how many of the young heroes knew about him. Maybe it was Garth subtly isolating himself. But he didn't want Garth to be any less happy at this gathering than the others. Still, there was an edge about him. At one point, the guys were considering having a baseball game at the field in the park across the bay. Wally was excited at the prospect. He'd really missed playing when he became Kid Flash and had to quit any sports he played.

"I was really good even before I got super speed, Bat Boy."

"Ha ha. How good could such a skinny kid be?".

"Hey! I was really good. I could switch hit. I swung really well both ways."

"Speedy must be really good, too, then," quipped Garth luckily only loud enough for Robin and Kid Flash to hear. Wally gave Garth a look. Alright! Alright Garth's shrug seemed to say. But there was a bitterness just below the surface with him. It might go away a while but it came back easily. And when Aquaman arrived around dinner time with Green Arrow and Captain Marvel he could immediately see the worsening in Garth's mood. Robin saw it as well tried to make sure Garth had friendly company. As Herald and Mas and Menos were approaching, Wally found his way back to Jinx who smirked at the sight of Captain Marvel in his red suit.  
"Has he got the beadiest eyes you've ever seen or what?" she snickered.

"Quiet!" Wally whispered. "What if he's got super hearing? What if Junior hears you?"

Hmmmph. Jinx sniffed. "There's a frosty relationship for ya! I was there next to him when they came in the room and Batgirl asked him a couple questions about him but Junior wouldn't even say his name!"

"Garth's got the same thing going. His mood dropped off when Aquaman showed up."

Jinx had a solution. She pulled Gar away from Arrowette and got him to fire up the Tower sound system. The birthday cake was still a ways off but what the hell! A minute later dance hits were blasting into the air over the bay and the mood of the room improved quite a bit. A short while later, Jinx's mom arrived on a shuttle from the other side of the bay and shortly after that Flash, not Barry Allen but The Flash in his red uniform, arrived.

"DILF," muttered Batgirl by Jinx's side as they watched him approach from the hallway.

There were introductions all around and a short time later everyone gathered round and sang happy birthday to Wally, sending up a big cheer when he blew out all his candles. He opened a few gifts right away and looked for the one from his adoptive father. At last he found a very small box with the right tag. He held it up, looking curiously at Flash. Flash nodded with a big smile. Wally tore it open at super speed.

"Ohmygod!AFlashring!" he said holding up another ring just like his own. "Is it . . . ?" He looked expectantly toward Flash.

"You've earned it," grinned Flash and Kid Flash ran from the room. When he returned, he was wearing not his usual red and yellow uniform but an all red one just like Flash's with a full cowl top only with the word "WEST" in yellow letters on the left side of his chest.

"Jinx, look! I'm a full Flash! A full Flash!" And after first running to stand before Jinx to show her he sped to Flash and hugged his mentor as the room burst into applause. Flash patted his back and whispered to him, "You've earned it son. You've shown you've got what it takes."

Wally stepped back from Flash grinning ear to ear. "I'm a Flash today."

"Sooooooo . . . this was your Flash Mitzvah?" quipped Gar and everyone laughed, including Arrowette. Beast Boy stood up a little taller.

The party was a lot of fun just as it had been the previous year. Gar had put Eminem's "Without Me" into the queue of the sound system and when it came on, everybody razzed Robin. Wally had a dance with most all the girls. Dancing was always fun. And Gar made some great jokes. But Wally wasn't completely into anything. All he could think about was Jinx.

It almost seemed too easy, too obvious. With great effort he made himself think it through again. Were there reasons not to? What would objections be? He tried to think of these things but they didn't seem real. He and Jinx weren't white trash. And historically it wasn't early at all. They didn't have to. It wasn't a shotgun deal. They weren't afraid to meet other people. Afraid?! She'd thrown aside her whole life, such as it was. And he'd risked nearly as much. They weren't mistaking a degree of affection or a dalliance for the real thing. They'd been all but official a year now. And they'd both risked everything when there was the possibility of the other being threatened. He sighed. She is so fucking amazing. And then he smirked. Yeah, fits reversed too. People who'd say we should wait and meet other people. How . . . how could it feel more right? It's not possible? And how do they know that she's not right, that I'm not right for her? We're not too young to know. We're older than our years for the lives we've led. We know. I-I know.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. He pulled his red cowl down to rest loosely about his neck. Speedy was telling a funny story. The sound system wasn't playing and everyone was listening to his tale. At the end, everyone was watching him and burst into laughter, everyone but Wally and Jinx. She was at the far end of the crowd at the moment, every face looking left toward Speedy but she was staring at him with great intensity and a faint smile.

He sped through the crowd to her and took her hand.

"Would you like to go-"

"-up on the roof?" she finished. She nodded. He nodded too.

They walked at normal speed and took the stairs, quiet at first then both stammering as they began talking.

"I-I wanted to-to talk to you alone. I . . ."

"Same-same here I-I've been thinking about-about something. I-I

They looked at each other and smiled. Funny that he/she would have trouble talking while I'm trying to start asking him/her!

Once up on the roof, they went over to the roof side that had the biggest part of the Jump City skyline as its backdrop. Wally stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"I love how a skyline is beautiful without any effort toward beauty. All those lights, the product of great effort and intelligence." He bent down and kissed her neck. "Just like you, never giving yourself to an effort to have people appreciate how beautiful you are and the product of so much effort that should never have had to be made and so much intelligence." He kissed her again. But she surprised him, by slowly walking around back of him and wrapping her arms around him before running one hand slowly up and down his red suited side.

"It's beautiful because it's all totally designed for a single purpose without a single wasted line, like someone I know. And, yeah, it's beautiful because it's the product of so much thought and effort. I-I liked you from the start, orange hair, but when I found out you were a book lover too . . ."

She sighed and squeezed him about the chest. When she relented he turned around to face her.

"You know this life I have here is . . . more than I dreamed things could be when I was struggling to be Kid Flash and Wally West back in my little room at 36 Owens Street. And then I got this gigantic room and a best friend to top 'em all and other pals who understood my life and everything provided for me as if I was rich and-and everything made sense. My life made sense. But when I was threatened with you not being part of my life, I-I was immediately ready to throw it all away. I resisted when I was being beaten within an inch of my life but when that life couldn't include you . . . Jinx. I-"

Jinx put her hand forward to his mouth.

"No. Let me say this. I-I got as far as I did before I met you because of my, well, my talents, but also because I-I wanted to pay back the whole world. I wanted to pay back the whole fucking world. You know how hard that is? It fueled me. It kept me going. The other academy students? I blew right past 'em. Every stupid kid's . . shout for my-my hair or my skin or my eyes! My parents having to leave me! Being misunderstood at school and no one giving me a chance to be the intellectual sort of girl that I was. I-I had it all tallied up and the world was going to be paid back for it and the interest was gonna kill. Kill. And it became a sort of vicious circle, anger making more anger and not leaving the possibility of anything else. And then I met you and okay, I like skinny athletes. So, okay, but then you didn't want to fight. You didn't try and hurt me. I hurt you and you still reached out to me. You still trusted me! But if we weren't playing heroes against villains, what were we playing? If we weren't going to say the normal lines and run through the normal choreography, then I could make changes on the fly, couldn't I? I could question the way things were going, the way my life was going. And you really got me with that line at one of our first dates about how staying with the villain life to pay back assholes who'd hurt me as a little girl and all they represented was giving those jerks a veto power over my whole life. Have-have you read The Count of Monte Cristo?"

Wally nodded.

"At the end he completes his grand revenge on everyone only he so completely made himself into an instrument of revenge to do it that there's no original person to enjoy it once it's all done. You pulled me back from that and that doesn't mean I should stick with you. It entitled you to my thanks, not me. But, living with you, orange hair! I feel like you led me back to the original me. And I feel like this is . . this is right. It's -"

She paused to finish and he put one finger over her lips.

"Let me. Jinx I have to ask-"  
"No, I have to ask-"

"Virginia . . ."

"Wallace . . ."

By dint of super speed, Wally was down on one knee first. Jinx was sort of crouched in almost a curtsy, halfway to having one knee down. She grinned. "Super speed cheat!"

"Will you marry me?"

She beamed at him.

" . . yes . . "


End file.
